Mumbai FC did exceptionally well to make their first point as they played out a commendable goalless draw with Shillong Lajong FC in their opening match of the Hero I-League 2015-16, and played at the JN Stadium, Shillong on Sunday.
Mumbai FC defender Ashutosh Mehta (right) challenges a Shillong Lajong attacker during their Hero I-League 2015-16.
The Mumbai outfit clearly showed no signs of being hampered by the chilly conditions as they went about their task in a thorough professional manner. They were quite impressive and did well to take the fight to the home side who enjoyed the better of the exchanges in the opening few minutes. In the very first minute Shillong’s new Nigerian striker had a shy at goal but his shot was wide off target.
The Khalid Jamil coached Mumbai FC gradually found their feet and started to make inroads towards the rival goal and Liberian medio Eric Brown was unlucky to find his rasping long range effort narrowly miss the mark much to the relief of Lajong custodian Vishal Kaith who was rooted to the ground.
Mumbai FC had another chance to break the deadlock, but goalkeeper Kaith came to the rescue of his team in the 37th minute. First, Kaith with a diving effort blocked Sushil Singh’s essay from the edge of the box and quickly recovered to deny Izumi Arata from scoring from the rebound. Those two missed proved costly for the visitors, while Kaith for his fine work under the Lajong bar was later declared Hero ‘Man-of-the-match’.
The pace of the match slackened down in the second period as both teams seemed content on holding on to ball possession and there were not many scoring chances created at either end.
However, Mumbai FC will be quite satisfied with the result and the point as they had lost both, the away and home ties against the North-Eastern club.
Results
Shillong Lajong 0 drew with Mumbai FC 0.