Mumbai FC produced their best performance of the season and grabbed an early lead against Shillong Lajong FC. Thereafter, they put up a dogged display and they did well to hold on to their advantage till the final minute and looked set to clinch a win. But, all their fine efforts were brought to naught as they conceded a goal at the death and were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw much to the disappointment of their large legion of fans.
Victorino Fernandes scored for the home side in the 2nd minute and Yatu Kinowaki struck the equalizer on the call of time to salvage a draw for the visitors.
Mumbai FC with this one point now tally 13 points and have now moved away from the bottom to ninth position. Shillong with 25 points stay in fifth place.
The Mumbai club’s Spanish coach Oscar Bruzon made five changes to the team from the last game against Chennai City FC last week. He also decided to start with an all-Indian player line-up resting the foreigners, including skipper Densill Theobald and Afghan stopper back Djelaluddin Sharityar, both on the substitute bench. The Mumbai side started with complete new set of midfielders – Shilton D’Silva, Pratesh Shirodkar, Siam Hanghal and Nikhil Kadam. Experienced striker Victorino Fernandes came in for Anderson Da Silva.
Coach Bruzon seemed to have picked the perfect combination as the made the brightest start in league when they scored from their first good move in the very second minute. Following a swift counter Farukh Choudhary with a measured square pass found Victorino ideally placed in front of the goal and the later with a rasping drive beat a diving Shillong goalkeeper Vishal Kaith to the top right corner.
That early strike was the perfect boost for the home side as they started to launch a series of attacks on the rival goal and had they been a little bit sharper upfront they could have completely knocked the fight out off their rivals from the northeast.
The visiting Shillong outfit kept their composure and began to make forays into the Mumbai territory and managed to have a couple of shots at goal. Issac Chhakchhuak twice came close to scoring from well-executed free-kicks midway through the first half. His first attempt narrowly missed the target and later his swerving shot was brilliantly saved by Mumbai FC custodian Laxmikant Kattimani, who was wearing the captain’s armband.
Victorino had another good opportunity to increase the lead when he latched on to a loose ball after Shillong custodian Kaith spilled a regulation collection. But Victorino did not keep the ball under control and was dispossessed by rival defender Pritam Singh.
The second session picked up pace and was more exciting as both the teams created plenty of chances at either end. The visitors had a great chance when their Japanese striker’s Yuta Kinowaki picked up Bipin Singh square pass and took a snap shot but to his and the team’s misfortune the ball came back from the horizontal bar. Kinowaki had another good chance and this time he fired wide.
The Mumbai team continued to search for more goals as they pushed hard at the rivals but lacked the final punch. Those misses proved costly for the home side as their resistance finally broke when Kinowaki cashed in on a gilt-edged opportunity and blasted home from the edge of the box giving goalkeeper Kattimani no chance to affect a save.
Result: Mumbai FC 1 (Victorino Fernandes 2nd) drew with Shillong Lajong FC 1 (Yatu Kinowaki 90th).