I-League Media Team

SHILLONG: Royal Wahingdoh FC broke McDowell Mohun Bagan’s unbeaten streak with a thrilling 3-2 win over the visitors at the JN Stadium in Shillong on Saturday and announced their title ambition with a force stronger than ever.

Naoba Singh’s superb long range strike in the last minute of the game proved to be decisive for the hosts who rallied back twice to tame the table-toppers whose dream to extend the lead at the top of the table in Shillong remained unfulfilled.

Post the win the Royals are sitting pretty at the second spot in the standings with 26 points from 15 games, while Bagan are still at the top with 28 points from 13 games.

While Balwant Singh gave the visitors the breakthrough in the 8th minute the hosts struck back through Jackichand Singh in the 60thminute. Sony Norde then struck the second for the Mariners in the 80th minute. However, an 86th minute penalty converted by Densill Theobald following a hand ball by Balwant saw the hosts restore parity once again. But it was Naoba Singh who hit the final nail in the coffin for the Mariners striking as late as the 90th minute to take his side home.

Earlier, the Royals saw a couple of chances go begging within the first five minutes of play and eventually found themselves trailing as early as the 8th minute of the game when Bagan scored against the run of play.

The hosts created two good chances within the first four minutes with Jackichand Singh in the thick of action on both occasions. In the third minute Densill spotted Jacki at the front from the centre. The Manipuri raced forward and tapped the ball to Kim Song Yong whose shot went just wide of the nets. In the next minute Jackichand Singh was found guilty of hitting the side of the nets when a well placed ball found him on the left.

In the 8th minute, Balwant was spotted by a Denson Devadas long ball on the right. The Bagan No. 15 then took advantage of a defensive lapse to convert as the defenders were found out of place inside the circle. With just the advancing goalie to beat, Balwant made no mistake to hit the far left corner of the nets.

Mohun Bagan almost doubled the lead in the 15th minute but the Katsumi Yusa strike at the nets was disallowed for being off side.

Though Bagan had taken the lead, the hosts were relentless in their efforts and created a flurry of chances.

A brilliant free kick by Lalmangaihsanga was deflected by Debjit Mazumdar and a lurking Jackichand was two steps too many in the front to convert of the rebound in the 36th minute. Barely four minutes later, a Bekay Bawar screamer at the net was saved by a diving Debjit.

The teams, however, went into the break with Bagan retaining their one-goal lead.

Crossing over, Bagan were frequently pushed back and the hosts’ resilience was rewarded at the stroke of the hour when Jackichand struck to equalize for the Royals. Jackichand seized on a brilliant pass-back to him from Beekay Bewar, who was first to a Naoba Singh cross. The ‘Shillong Messi’s’ right foot smack hit the back of the net sending the crowd into raptures.

Just when the game seemed to be heading for a draw, Bagan’s Sony Node struck from almost nowhere in the 80th minute. The dangerous striker was left unmarked on the left and he breezed forward from the centre to eventually curl in a right footer to beat the hapless Nikhil Bernard.

However, parity was soon restored.   In the 86th minute a silly handball by Balwant, who later protested his innocence, saw Wahingdoh get a penalty which was converted by Theobald to put the match on level terms again.

Balwant, meanwhile, was shown a red card for charging at the referee a couple of minutes later. Bagan, thus were down to 10-men and the hosts made full use of the situation to score the equaliser in the 90th minute.

A smashing drive from almost 25 yards by Naoba Singh saw Debjit being reduced to a mere spectator as the Royals won on the night.