Thangboi Singto had mentioned ahead of this game that it would not be easy for his Shillong Lajong side despite them being experienced in the I-League compared to new sides like Chennai City FC and Minerva Punjab.
On Sunday though, they put their stamp on the game with a superb performance to win 4-1 away from home against Chennai City at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai.
After Fabio Pena opened the scoring and gave them a lead going into half-time, Isaac Vanmalsawma, Bipin Singh and Asier Dipanda Dicka added second-half goals to give Shillong the victory by a huge margin. Chennai City's lone goal came from Haroon Amiri very late in the game, proving to be a conciliatory one in the grand scheme of things.
Lajong went in with the same eleven that drew against East Bengal in their last game. Chennai City, meanwhile, made four changes, bringing back veteran goalkeeper Karanjit Singh and Afghan-international Amiri. Local lad Nandhakumar replaced his statemate Michael Rejin, who had started the last two games. Abhishek Das replaced the injured Yumnam Raju at right-back.
Both teams were coming off 1-1 draws in their previous encounters and it was the home side that started brightly. They fashioned a very good chance as early as the fifth minute, Das floating in a lovely ball from the right to which Amiri connected with a powerful header forcing Vishal Kaith in the Lajong goal to palm it away.
Both Charles De Souza and Amiri displayed good touch early on; Amiri fashioning a very good opening in the 15th minute after bringing down an aerial ball from Das with a deft touch and racing into the box before ultimately striking his shot wide. Chennai City were better in the opening 15, but failed to capitalise.
Lajong came back into the match through their midfielders, Yuta Kinowaki and Isaac. Kinowaki bossed the game from midfield and as he started to get on the ball more, so too did Lajong’s control. Coach Singto also made a calculated move, taking off Samuel Lalmuanpuia and bringing on Pena after just 27 minutes, making smart use of I-League rules regarding U-22 players.
And the move paid off!
In the 37th minute, Kinowaki was fouled by Charles close to the centre circle and Isaac delivered a beautiful ball in, which Pena, smack in the middle of the box, had no trouble in putting past Karanjit with a header. That goal helped Lajong wrest the momentum and they took the lead into half-time.
In an attempt to bounce back, Chennai City head coach V. Soundararajan brought on Marcos 'Tank’ Vinicius and Soosai Raj in place of Nandhakumar and Edwin early in the second half. The move did bring about a couple of chances. Charles had a rasping shot that went wide of the post after a neat one-two with Tank, who had the second opportunity after being released by Denson Devadas down the left channel.
His cross though was lacking and soon the hosts were made to pay.
In the 65th minute, Isaac added a goal of his own from a central free-kick just outside the box. It was a perfect position for a strike and Isaac did exactly that, depositing the ball in the far right corner to give his side a two-goal cushion.
The goal opened the floodgates as Lajong went on to score three goals in the space of 15 minutes. After Isaac's strike, Bipin made it 3-0 in the 77th minute, cutting in from the left and hitting a sweet right-footed strike into the top corner. A couple of minutes later, on another counter-attack, Dicka, the leading goalscorer in the I-League, added to his tally, waltzing through the middle of Chennai City's defence to slot one past Karanjit.
Frustrated and hurting, Chennai City mounted a late surge and it got them a consolation goal, Amiri left with a simple finish after latching onto Dhanapal Ganesh’s cutback.
With the win, Shillong Lajong move to fourth with 16 points from their 10 matches while Chennai City remain on eight points and stay seventh ahead of Mumbai FC on goal difference.
