Mohammedan Sporting down Peerless, climb to top of table

Mohammedan Sporting Club moved to the top of the Calcutta Premier Division 'A' standings after recording a 2-0 victory over Peerless SC here on Monday.

Kareem Omolaja (60th minute) and Vanlalbiaa Chhangte (69th) were goal scorers for the winners after Jiten Murmu missed a penalty for Peerless.

Mohammaden now have 19 points from 10 matches to climb to the top of the table.

Mohammedan didn't get off the mark quite as quickly as they might have hoped with Peerless adopting a tactically strong approach, setting up a deep block with pace up front for counter-attacks.

Peerless' plan of attack was fairly straight-forward with a solid back-line, some man-marking and an aim to try and use the speed of Jiten to try and penetrate into the final third.

The plan seemed to work reasonably well as Peerless made several decent attacks. However, the Black Panthers were by far the more dominant side across the course of the first-half but poor finishing turned out to be their weakness.

It wasn't until the second-half that Peerless' defence really started to breakdown as Mohammedan showed far more attacking intent with a much-improved performance.

Nonetheless, the lack of finishing in the attacking third and outstanding defending from Peerless meant Mohammedan could not find a goal despite early dominance.

Despite the momentum turning in Mohammedan's favour, Peerless had a golden chance to surge ahead when they were awarded a penalty in the 53rd minute after Kareem tripped Anthony Wolfe inside the box. But Jiten failed to convert from the spot to the relieve of home fans.

Mohammedan, on the other hand, kept dominating in both territorial and ball possession, showing glimpses of their attacking prowess.

Mohammedan's persistent pressure finally bore fruit as Kareem put the hosts ahead at the hour mark with a blistering finish from outside the box.

With Mohammedan taking the lead, Peerless had to throw caution to the wind as they launched a wave of attacks on the opponent's defence.

But by pushing forward, Peerless left themselves exposed and vulnerable at the back and Mohammedan took full advantage when they doubled their lead in the 69th minute through Vanlalbiaa, who picked out Tirthankar Sarkar's pass to produce a fine strike into the top-right corner.