The hosts lose two valuable points (MMB v/s SCG)

Kolkata , 17-Dec, 2011 :

McDowell Mohun Bagan was held by Sporting Clube de Goa to a 1-1 draw in an I-League match held in Salt Lake Stadium today. Rahim Nabi gave the Mariners the lead but Kalu Ogba equalized via penalty. N. P. Pradeep and Kingshuk Debnath were booked today and both of them will miss the next match.
Technical Director Subrata Bhattacharya made two changes from the team that beat HAL 4-2 in Bangalore. He brought in N. P. Pradeep and Manish Maithani in place of Dhanarajan and the injured Jose Barreto.

Mariners started the match in 4-5-1 formation with Jewel Raja playing from a little deep behind the lone striker Odafa Okolie. In midfield, Manish Maithani and Snehasish Chakraborty played on the flanks with N. P. Pradeep and Rakesh Masih in charge of the central midfield. With Sangram Mukherjee as goalkeeper, Kingshuk Debnath and Anwar Ali played as the two stoppers while Surkumar Singh and Rahim Nabi played as right and left midfielders respectively.

Mariners played good football today, dominated the match and created a few scoring opportunities, but Odafa Okolie and Jewel Raja were guilty of missing chances. Rahim Nabi played exceptionally well today both, as as a left back as well as a striker in second half and was rightly adjudged the Man of the Match. Though Kingshuk Debnath continued with his good performance, but like the match against Prayag United, he was guilty of giving away a soft penalty.

Mariners got an early corner but Rahim Nabi failed to get a touch on the ball from an advantageous position. Odafa initiated a nice move down the left flank and from Snehasish's pass while Jewel Raja instead of passing the ball to an unmarked Surkumar, took a shot himself but the ball went over the target. Odafa, who was tightly marked, was pulled from behind near the opponent box. From Odafa's pass, Rakesh's shot was deflected for corner though nothing resulted out of the corner.

Sporting de Goa made their first positive move when Kalu's shot went straight to Sangram. Manish and Surkumar took a couple of long rangers but both ballooned over the crossbar, though Manish's shot was a little close to the target.

Odafa Okolie once again showed his brilliance when he nicely got past a couple of his markers, the ball went to Surkumar via Manish, but Surkumar's cross was cleared for another corner in favour of the Mariners, though once again the McDowell Mohun Bagan players failed to convert the setpiece movement.

Jewel Raja came close to scoring in the fag end of the half but his header from Snehasish's corner went out.

In the second half, N. P. Pradeep initiated a move as he snatched the ball from Kalu. From his forward pass, Odafa released the ball towards Manish whose cross just went over the head of Jewel Raja. N. P. Pradeep was booked minutes later, he was shown yellow card in the last match too, which means he will be missing the match against Salgaocar. This will be a big blow for the Mariners as Pradeep was slowly coming back to form from the last match and was playing really well in the central midfield.

Subrata Bhattacharya, who is well known for his great match reading made a good change in the 57th minute and changed the formation to 4-4-2 which changed the complexion of the game. Dhanarajan replaced Manish Maithani. Dhanarajan played on the left back while Rahim Nabi moved to the forward position and Jewel Raja shifted to right half.

Dhanarajan and Snehasish showed good combination and from the latter's pass, Rahim Nabi tried to dribble past opponent's wall of defense and it seemed as if he was pushed by a defender, but the referee turned down McDowell Mohun Bagan's penalty appeal.

Jewel's header, from a close range, off Dhanarajan's cross, narrowly missed the target.

Rahim Nabi gave the Mariners the lead in the 73rd minute. He latched on to the ball after a defense lapse of Sporting and brilliantly placed the ball inside the goal past the onrushing goalkeeper. Four defenders of Sporting Clube de Goa tried to clear the ball, but the placement was done with such precision that the ball went rolling inside the net.

A minute later, Jewel's header from Snehasish's brilliant cross hit the post.

Kingshuk gave away a penalty when he needlessly stretched his right hand to stop the ball inside the McDowell Mohun Bagan penalty box and the referee gave penalty to the opponents. Kalu Ogba made no mistake to put the ball inside the goal. Kingshuk got booked for this offence and he will be also missing the next match. Kingshuk was earlier booked against Prayag United when he gave away a similar penalty. Such silly mistakes from Kingshuk have proved quite costly for McDowell Mohun Bagan and it overshadows his hard work, but still he is at present the best defender in terms of consistency.

Rahim Nabi tried his best to score but his header from an acute angle, off Surkumar's cross, just went over.

In the 84th minute, Souvik Chakraborty replaced N. P. Pradeep. Rahim Nabi once again was unlucky as he got hold off a back pass of a Sporting defender towards goalkeeper, but his push this time was saved by the Sporting 'keeper.

Towards the fag end of the match, Odafa Okolie missed a sitter. A long cross of Dhanarajan found unmarked Odafa but his chip over goalkeeper's head went over the crossbar. A quality striker like Odafa Okolie should have done better as this goal could have ensured full points to Mariners.

Technical Director, Subrata Bhattacharya said, "We were extremely unlucky today, we had a good match but conceded a soft goal. Injury to key players is causing a lot of problem for us, today also we did not get the service of three of our strikers."

Mariners will have to be careful in the coming matches as six players have a yellow card against their name - Sangram Mukherjee, Souvik Chakraborty, Sunil Chettri, Gouranga Dutta, Murali Joseph and Rakesh Masih.