Bagan roll over Salgaocar

Vasco: Defending champions Mohun Bagan continued to be on a roll, punishing Salgaocar FC for their poor defending to script a fluent 3-1 win in their 9th round I-League clash at the Tilak Maidan, Vasco, on Saturday.
It was a performance that Salgaocar would like to forget in a hurry. A clueless defence, that at times were at sixes and sevens and a midfield that was porous and error-prone, leaving striker Darryl Duffy to yet again plough a lone furrow up front.
But what was annoying and most disappointing for home fans was their lethargic performance. There were mis-passes galore, yawning gaps in midfield and a lack of urgency overall. Very rarely did they manage to put the Bagan defence under pressure.
Augustine Fernandes, Martin Scott, Seityasen Singh, Gurjinder Kumar, Alesh Sawant and Gilbert Oliveira especially, were guilty of letting the team down. While Alesh was replaced as early as in the 20th minute as he looked woefully off colour, the rest of those mentioned contributed to the cause. Gilbert was probably the worst offender as he not only lost the ball on several occasions but made several wrong passes that ensured Salgaocar lost the plot in midfield itself.
On the other hand, Bagan were compact in defence, the midfield was well marshalled by Katsumi Yusa and Lenny Rodrigues with Brandon Fernandes too chipping in with a fine performance. Glen Cornell, Sony Norde and Jeje Lalpekhlua continuing from where they left off in the AFC Cup match, troubled the rival defence with pace, power and deception while striking a perfect rhythm.
It was Jeje who broke the deadlock in the 13th minute when Lenny’s crack at goal after accepting a wall pass from Sony, saw the ball travel to Jeje after it was blocked by Karanjit Singh. Jeje did well to tap it home in a jiffy.
Sixteen minutes later, Glen made the most of an Eder Monteiro deflection off an attempt by Katsumi to make it 2-0 by the 29th minute.
Salgaocar lacked conviction in their build-up and never really threatened the Bagan goal. It was only by the 32nd minute that they forced their first corner and substitute Jackichand had the goalkeeper tested from a free kick, forcing Debjit Majumdar to make a flash dive to his left to stop the midfielder’s effort.
Bagan continued to probe and nibble away at the Salgaocar defence and struck for a third time in the first minute of the three minutes of added time. A harmless essay by Glen after he was harnessed by Lenny, travelled towards goalkeeper Karanjit but surprised him when it suddenly deviated after hitting the turf and flew into the net.
Salgaocar came back more organized after the cross over but continued with their erroneous ways even as Duffy continued desperately to fetch them that elusive goal. Twice he tested Majumdar before finally beating him with a header off a measured cross from the left by Jakichand.
Salgaocar did make some concerted efforts to breach the Bagan defence again but Duffy had too many bodies and legs to deal with. Bagan eventually trooped home 3-1 winners even as Duffy stayed at the top on the leading scorers’ list.