Brace from Odafa and Sunil helps Mariners thrash Lajong 6-1

McDowell Mohun Bagan today completely outplayed Shillong Lajong FC in an I league match played at the Salt Lake Stadium, as they won the match 6-1. Odafa Okolie and Sunil Chhetri scored a brace each while Jose Ramirez Barreto and Rahim Nabi netted one goal each. Odafa Okolie so far has scored 24 goals in this edition of I league, 2 goals less than Ranty Martins of Dempo Sports Club.

It was one of the rare occasions during the entire season when Technical Director Subrata Bhattacharya was fortunate enough to utilize the full strength squad. Throughout the season, coach Prasanta Banerjee had said, "We were unlucky not to get our full team in most of the matches either due to injury problem or because of card suspension. This has really hampered our cause in I league."

This is the 3rd successive match where Subrata Bhattacharya used Sunil Chhetri in midfield and this decision has really paid off as Sunil continued with his good form and rightly earned the Man of the Match award today, though it could have also been given to the goal machine Odafa Okolie or Jose Barreto, who really played well today and 3 goals were scored from his pass.

With Sunil Chhetri playing as attacking medio behind the 2 strikers Jose Barreto and Odafa Okolie, Jewel Raja played as the holding medio while Manish Bharghav and Hudson Lima operated down the flanks. Shilton Paul played as the goalkeeper and the defence lineup consisted of Surkumar Singh and Rahim Nabi as the 2 side backs, while Anwar Ali and Kingshuk Debnath played as the 2 stopper backs.

Odafa Okolie could have scored in the 2nd minute itself when he dribbled past 1 player but his shot got blocked by Lajong defence. Jewel Raja took a nice long ranger shot that nicely dipped but narrowly missed the target. Hudson Lima also came close to scoring but his shot from close range was saved by goalkeeper, Soram Poirei.

Mariners were lucky not to concede a goal in the 14th minute as Boithang Haokip's left footed shot just went out.

Rahim Nabi gave Mariners the lead in the 20th minute. From Odafa's forward pass, Jose Barreto nicely released the ball towards Rahim Nabi in the left side of the opponent box. Rahim Nabi got past the last defender before brilliantly lobbing the ball inside goal over onrushing goalkeeper's head.

From Anwar Ali's long pass, Manish nicely headed the ball towards Barreto who got past 1 player but his left footed shot went straight to the goalkeeper.

Jose Barreto was once again in the thick of action in the 24th minute as he sent a brilliant through pass towards Sunil Chhetri who made no mistake to place the ball in past onrushing goalkeeper.

Injured Jewel Raja was replaced by Souvik Chakraborty in the 33rd minute.

From Hudson Lima's free kick, Anwar Ali headed the ball towards Odafa Okolie, whose header was saved from goal-line by diving goalkeeper.

Shilton made a stunning save in the 40th minute to keep the scoreline intact.

From Sunil Chhetri's accurate through pass, Odafa Okolie ran a few yards with the ball before unleashing a right footed grounder that went to the back of the net, making the scoreline 3-0 in favour of McDowell Mohun Bagan in the 43rd minute.

The only player of Shillong Lajong who tried to cause some problem to Mariners was John Meyongar. Towards the fag end of the 1st half, he made a good run, entered the penalty box, but a brilliant tackle from Anwar Ali ensured no damage was done to Mariners goal.

Odafa Okolie scored his 2nd and team's 4th goal in the 51st minute, which was surely the best goal of the match. Sunil Chhetri took a indirect free kick, passed the ball to Odafa, who received the ball with his body towards McDowell Mohun Bagan goal. He took a sudden turn, dribbled past 5 players before taking a left footed shot which got blocked by one of the defenders, but Odafa promptly pushed the rebound ball inside the goal by his right foot. It was a treat to watch the way Odafa dodged past the 5 players inside Lajong penalty box.

The visitors pulled one back in the 57th minute. A cross from the right side was nicely headed in by Subhash Singh.

In the very next minute, Sunil Chhetri was brought down inside the opponent box and referee did not hesitate to give penalty to Mariners. Jose Barreto, cool as a cucumber, placed the ball to the right corner of the net from spot kick.

Snehasish Chakraborty replaced Hudson Lima in the 61st minute. Snehasish almost scored from his 1st touch as his shot from Odafa's header just went out.

Anwar Ali was shown yellow card and he will be missing the next match.

Snehasish and Barreto combination resulted in a good move down the left flank which ended with Sunil's shot being saved by goalkeeper.

Odafa missed a golden chance to complete his hattrick as his push from Sunil's through pass went out.

From Jose Barreto's brilliant pass, Sunil Chhetri scored a nice goal in the 76th minute as his right footed shot nicely swung over the goalkeeper's head and bulged the net.

Subrata Bhattacharya made the last change as he brought in Ashim Biswas in place of Jose Barreto in the 82nd minute.

After the match, Team Manager Bernard said, "We asked the players to play for pride and they really played well today, but unfortunately we are right now out of contention of winning the league."

Captain Jose Barreto said, "We had a very good match today mainly because the midfielders operated nicely down the flanks as well as via the middle path. We could have scored few more goals today."

Mariners will leave for Goa day after tomorrow to play against Salgaocar on 14th April.

View Match Photos