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Kolkata giants and former champions Mohun Bagan will look to gather the winning momentum when they take on a young Shillong Lajong FC at home at the Saltlake Stadium on Sunday, December 23. The game follows the Neroca-Minerva clash and kicks off at 5pm IST.
Mohun Bagan shrugged off a Derby defeat to archrivals East Bengal, registering an impressive away victory against champions Minerva Punjab FC in their previous encounter. They are sixth on the table with 12 points from eight games and need more wins to pose a serious challenge to the title.
Coach Shankarlal Chakraborty reflected the mood in the Mohun Bagan camp when he said in the pre-match presser, “Winning the next match after the Derby has morally boosted us. Now, we are trying to maintain the winning momentum. We want three points to be in a good position on the league table. We have not won a single match at our home ground. This is one of our disadvantages. Luck was not in our favour when we played the other games. We hope to turn that around tomorrow.”
Shillong Lajong FC look hardly capable of denying Bagan a win on Sunday, given they have the worst defence of the league, letting in an astounding 22 goals in their eight games so far. That includes a 1-6 drubbing to debutantes Real Kashmir FC.
That has almost made irrelevant their impressive attacking play, which has so far netted 10 goals, the same as Mohun Bagan have managed in the same number of games.
Coach Alison Kharsyntiew was forthright in his views ahead of the game saying, “Being honest, I am looking for development of these young players. The players have worked very hard and in some games have performed very well, but we are not winning games. In four or five games we were lacking defence so we are working very hard on it. We hope to improve against Mohun Bagan tomorrow. Playing against Mohun Bagan is always very tough but we are aiming for all three points.”
On paper, It will certainly be Shillong Lajong FC’s fragile and inexperienced defence against the likes of Mohun Bagan’s strike force of Dipanda Dicka and Henry Kisekka. Given the attacking instincts of the two sides, one can expect a lot of goals from this one.
