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A brace from club captain Odafe Onyeka Okolie gave Mohun Bagan AC a much needed 3-1 victory over Pune FC in a round 16 encounter of the I-League at the Barasat Municipal Stadium on Saturday evening. The win eased the pressure off coach Karim Bencharifa and on not scoring Odafe.
Odafe put Mohun Bagan in front in the first half while Ram Malik doubled the home team’s advantage in the second session with both sides wasting plenty of opportunities. Thongkhosiem Haokip pulled one back for Pune FC but Odafe sealed the points by netting his second late on.
The result took Mohun Bagan’s points tally to 18 from 15 matches while Pune FC remain third with 24 from 14 outings after their fourth defeat of this campaign.
Having failed to win their last two games, Mohun Bagan looked to make a fast start but Pune FC were more comfortable in possession with Douhou Pierre pulling the strings from midfield. The Ivorian created openings for both Mustapha Riga and Izumi Arata but neither could test Mohun Bagan custodian Shilton Pal. The hosts were winning a lot of free-kicks but not really opening up the Pune backline.
But at the half-hour mark Karim’s side went in front through Odafe. Mohun Bagan kept a move alive following a corner with Christopher Chizoba doing well to find C.S. Sabeeth inside the box. Sabeeth’s shot was saved by Amrinder Singh but Odafe showed great predatory instincts to score from the rebound. The goal changed the atmosphere in the ground completely as Mohun Bagan fans were delighted and their team started defending better. The Mariners led 1-0 at the break.
Pune FC coach Mike Snoei brought on young Haokip in place of India international Arata at the start of the second half and his side were nearly level almost immediately after the restart as Calum Angus’ header from an Anthony D’Souza corner was cleared off the line. It was end-to-end action after that as Odafe went close a couple of times while Pune’s Dutch attacker Riga continued to be wasteful in front of goal. On one occasion when Riga did force a save off Pal, James Meyer was guilty of not scoring from the rebound.
Odafe should have killed the game off when he was played a clean through on goal by Chizoba but the Mohun Bagan skipper delayed and allowed Pune FC to clear. The green-and-maroon brigade finally had their second goal through young Ram Malik who capitalised on an error from Amrinder, who came way out of his goal but missed the ball, by finding the back of an empty net.
Pune FC kept fighting till the end and Haokip gave them hope by scoring from a rebound after an Angus’ free-kick had hit the post. But Mohun Bagan avoided a nervy finish as Odafe outmuscled past a couple of Pune FC defenders before scoring past Amrinder with the shot taking a small deflection off Angus to make it 3-1.
