With three points from today’s match, the green-and-maroon brigade advanced to the third position, with 27 points off 15 matches, alongside JCT Mills. Salgaocar meanwhile have already been relegated from the I-League’s Elite division.

Bagan coach as well as the club officials should pay due tribute to their experinced custodian Sangram Mukherjee, whose brilliant show steered the team to the win. But for Sangram, Salgaocar would have had the last laugh. Jose Barreto struck the winner for Mohun Bagan.

Led by a series of soaring movements, mostly by a three-man combination conprising Rocus Lamere, Malsawmtluanga (Mama) and Nigerian striker Felix Chimaokwu in the middle-third, Salgaocar literally drilled holes into the Bagan defence on numerous occasions, only to somehow miss the mark. Salgaocar paid the price for missing out on far too many sitters. Mama and Felix, despite stretching Bagan’s defence today, were the culprits as far as the sitters were concerned.

Mukherjee emerged as the saviour, first in the 45th minute, and then again in the 51st minute, followed by another top effort in the 68th minute. No wonder the experienced goalie was picked Man-of-the-Match.

Interestingly, despite winning, Bagan were hardly able to dictate terms for the larger part of the match. In the 55th minute, Salgaocar goalie Peter Rodrigues had to really exert himself to ward off a Habibur Rahaman initiative from inside the box. Bagan’s other big moment in the match was Barreto’s goal that came in the 34th minute.