It’s been two matches into their I-League campaign now. And Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan are yet to open their account. After succumbing to Chirag United in their championship opener, Karim Bencherifa’s had yet another failed outing, this time losing to JCT Mills. The Bagan boys were dealt a 2-1 defeat by the Punjab stalwarts at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan on Thursday.

Midway into the match, Sukhwinder Singh’s boys struck twice in 10 minutes to put Mohun Bagan in trouble, who just couldn’t recover after the double blow. Branco Cardozo reduced the margin much towards the end, but it just wasn’t good enough for after telling strikes from Penn Orji and Baljit Saini.

Orji opened the scoring for the visitors in the 46th minute, capitalizing on a through from Alit Sahni. And then in the 56th minute, before Bagan could take stock of the situation, JCT made it 2-0 through Baljit. The Bagan defence paid the price for leaving an alert Baljit unmarked as he pounced on a long ball and outpaced a desperate Rakesh Masih to fire past a helpless Shilton Paul.

Branco’s 25-yard right-footer in the 84th minute may have found the back of the net, but the stunning strike wasn’t good enough to bail Mohun Bagan out.

The Bagan boys were left ruing their luck after missing out on a couple of neat chances in the first half. Edeh Chidi came close to scoring as early as the 5th minute when his sharp header from close range was warded off by an alert Baldeep Singh. The n in the 22nd minute, a low shot from Chidi came off the post. And as Marcos Pereira missed one in the 41st minute, Bagan gave the impression that they would eventually have the last laugh.

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