Refereeing and missed chances deny Mariners full points

McDowell Mohun Bagan today perhaps played the best match of the season, especially in the 1st half, but due to biased refereeing and missed chances, Mariners were held to a 2-2 draw by Dempo Sports Club. Odafa Okolie scored both the goals for Mariners, though he missed 1 penalty. In the 2nd half, Mariners should have been awarded another penalty, but the referee turned a blind eye to it. Also, twice woodwork came to the rescue of Dempo.

McDowell Mohun Bagan started today's match in 4-3-2-1 formation with Odafa as the lone striker while Jose Barreto and Sunil Chhetri operated from a little deep. The 3 midfielders were Rakesh Masih, Snehasish Chakraborty and Jewel Raja. With Shilton Paul as goalkeeper, the 4-man defence consisted of Anwar Ali and Kingshuk Debnath as stopper backs while Surkumar Singh and Rahim Nabi played as right and left back respectively.

Mariners started the match with a bang when in the 15th second, Odafa dribbled past 2 defenders before unleashing a shot which Subhasish Roy Chowdhury made a brilliant save diving to his right.

In the very next minute, Shilton made a good save as he denied Koko's shot from going in.

Odafa Okolie again got a loose ball in the 3rd minute inside the Dempo box, but once more Subhasish was equal to his task as he stretched his hand to prevent Odafa's chip from going in.

Rahim Nabi unnecessarily used his hand to clear the ball from Clifford Miranda's cross and the referee pointed to the spot. Ranti Martin did not make any mistake to give Dempo the lead from the penalty kick in the 5th minute.

Due to mistakes from Rakesh and Nabi, Koko made a run down the right side and from his cross, Denzil's shot was once again saved by diving Shilton.

Getting a back head from Jose Barreto, Odafa Okolie took a right footed shot but it sailed over the crossbar.

Jose Barreto's shot hit the hands of Denzil inside Dempo box, but the referee did not award a penalty  immediately, though the linesman had already raised his flag. When Jose Barreto ran towards the referee and showed him the flag raised by the linesman, the referee had no other option but to award a penalty to McDowell Mohun Bagan. Odafa's penalty kick, however, hit the post.

Odafa Okolie equalized in the 26th minute. Getting a pass from Sunil Chhetri, Odafa showed brilliant skill as he got past Sameer Naik, then nicely dribbled past Subhasish to send his left footed shot inside the goal.

Minutes later, Odafa set up a nice pass for Jewel Raja inside the Dempo box. He back-passed to Sunil Chhetri whose shot went miles over the target.

Mariners took the lead in the 33rd minute. Sunil Chhetri once again sent a long pass towards Odafa who nicely received the ball, set himself up for the shot and took a stunning right footer which bulged into the net, with Subhasish having absolutely no chance to even move.

Playing in a little deep position, Sunil Chhetri had a very good match today as he essayed many good passes to Odafa, but Sunil was guilty of missing a couple of gilt-edged chances.

Snehasish was also unlucky not to see his name in the scorer's list as his left footed shot taken from an acute angle beat Subhasish and hit the post.

Subrata Bhattacharya made the first change in the 59th minute when Manish Maithani replaced Jose Barreto and Mariners started playing in 4-4-1-1 position.

Sunil and Odafa nicely played a wall pass amongst each other but Odafa's final pass was a bit fast for Sunil.

In the 70th minute, Debabrata Roy should have easily got marching orders as he kicked at Jewel Raja who was lying in the ground injured, but the referee surprisingly showed only a yellow card to him.

Sunil sent a brilliant forward pass towards Manish Maithani but he hesitated a bit and the ball was cleared inside the Dempo box.

Odafa delivered a nice cross from the left flank towards Rakesh and Sunil, but both failed to head the ball properly from a close range.

In the 76th minute, against run of play, Koko equalized for Dempo. Getting a long ball from Climax, Koko placed the ball inside the goal past Kingshuk, who was extremely slow to clear the ball, and Shilton also was a tad slow to get out of the goal-line.

Hudson Lima replaced Snehasish in the 77th minute.

Mariners should have been awarded a penalty in the 79th minute. Odafa's left footed shot hit Mahesh Gawli's hand but the referee waved play on.

Subhasish replaced injured Anwar Ali in the 86th minute.

After losing 2 points from today's match, Mariners are almost out of the contention for this year's I league.

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