NEW DELHI, January 15: JCT Mills (Phagwara) had one more opportunity to salvage pride, but they squandered that too. JCT forced a goalless draw against Mohun Bagan in the Philips National Football League at Ambedkar Stadium today.For Mohun Bagan, a win would have given them a better standing in the league but the unfortunate part was that their strikers -- Nigerian Chima Okerie and Dipendu Biswas -- failed to deliver.
JCT coach Sukhwinder Singh did not have much hope for this crucial match, anyway. ``Bagan is a big side with so many good players. If we succeeded in forcing a draw, it is an achievement for us,'' he said.
But the mood in the rival camp was not the same. Bagan coach T K Chathunny failed to justify their performance and felt that he needed more time with the team as he had been with them for just one month.
However, today's performance did little credit to Bagan's reputation. They relied too heavily on Okerie and Biswas. Support from the wings was missing and the star outfit thus lost
the cutting edge. Chathunny later admitted that Bagan needed more options as they were depending on the Nigerian a bit too much.
Bagan's strategy to wait and watch did not succeed as the home side had a better share of the ball for the first half hour. Playing with a 4-4-2 formation, Bagan concentrated more on attack. But with Moosa Aliu, Harjinder Singh and Hardip Singh standing fast, the JCT defence was impregnable.
Okerie was so tightly marked that he could rarely find an opening.
Luck was not in his favour either. In the 31st minute, Okerie came rushing in from the left flank to utilise a gap but JCT goalkeeper Arvind Kumar was too quick for him.
Tired of the deadlock, Chathunny tried other combinations, sending in Soumitra Chakraborthy for Rajendra Prasad and replacing Basudev Mondal with Abdul Khalique. But both the players failed to make any impact.
Man-of-the-match Hardip Singh's performance was perhaps the only bright spot.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
