Brilliant Balwant denies Mohun Bagan win

A listless Mohun Bagan failed to take advantage of two gifted goals as Churchill Brothers rode on a spectacular double by Balwant Singh for a 2-2 draw in their round 18 I-League fixture today.
Battling relegation, the defending champions exploited Mohun Bagan's fragile defence as an unmarked Balwant put the team ahead with a header in the 36th minute from a Thangjam Singh cross in the right.
A minute later, Churchill midfielder Alesh Sawant, while trying to clear the ball for a corner, scored an own goal to gift Mohun Bagan an easy equaliser.
Mohun Bagan went ahead in the 56th minute thanks to some inexperience goalkeeping by Lalit Thapa who brought down Christopher Chizoba inside the box for a resultant spotkick that was well executed by the Nigerian.

But Mohun Bagan continued their winless run as they could not hold on to the lead letting in a last minute goal by Balwant through a solo run.
Bagan now have 19 points from 17 ties, while Churchill are 15 from as many matches to remain in the bottom half.

The green and maroon brigade wasted opportunities in plenty especially after Churchill defender Dharmaraj Ravanan was brought down by their own goalkeeper Thapa in yet another shoddy display.
After the collision Ravanan suffered a head injury and had to be taken off on a stretcher with Churchill at the mercy of a weak defence but Bagan failed to bring in any field goal.

Midfielder CS Sabeeth was spirited with his long run-ins but only to miss the target as the Karim Bencherifa's team looked ordinary.
Coming in place of Ram Malik, Ujjal Howladar set up Sabeeth with a brilliant cross but the latter's shot found the inside of the post before rolling out just near the goalline.
Bencherifa brought in Shouvik Ghosh in the defence in the last minute but still could not plug the loopholes.
Balwant beat Rowilson Rodrigues by speed while the substitute was out of place before slotting home a gem from the
top of the box in the left to bring on the equaliser.

Balwant now has eight goals to his kitty, only second to leading scorers Sunil Chhetri and Joshimar d'Silva Martins who have nine each.