Bagan, who missed almost nine of their regulars due to national call-up and injuries, dominated throughout the 90 minutes. If the new coach PK Banerjee was worried about his bench, he will surely sleep a lot easier tonight. Most of the `reserves ' played well today and this Bagan squad looked no different from the regular one. Of course, the red and white stripes of Amal Dutta's shirt were conspicuous by its absence.

The first goal for Bagan came in the 38th minute when Haque pushed an Okerie pass into the Sporting net. Amit Das, the wily medio created the move from the right and gave Okerie achest-high ball. The Nigerian put it in front of Haque who had a comfortable task in pushing it in.

Okerie consolidated Bagan's position in the 48th minute, once again Das doing the ground work. Das, who has recently been released from the National camp, ran down the right flank and passed on to Okerie. The Nigerian striker's grounder went past Sporting custodian Shanti Majumdar.

In the 66th minute of the game, Okerie trapped a beautiful pass from Khentang Paite and was in scoring position inside the box when Sporting defender Amitabh Ghosh brought him down. Okerie, taking the spot kick, hit straight into Majumdar's arms. Later in the game, Okerie missed another scoring opportunity after Paite's shot had hit the Sporting goalpost. Okerie managed to reach the rebound, but hit wide.