Goa: Roy Krishna once again came up to the fore as his 85th-minute strike helped ATK Mohun Bagan beat Jamshedpur FC 1-0 at the Fatorda on Sunday in a very sticky battle. This win has taken the Kolkata side to the top of the league table with 36 points from 17 games.
Mumbai City FC, who Bagan displaced at the top by two points, have a game in hand which means that Habas’s team could go back to second place if Mumbai beat Bengaluru FC on Monday. The result also meant that Jamshedpur’s chances of making it to the playoffs are all but over.
Bagan took the upper hand in the first half after a cagey start in which both teams seemed to be prioritising caution over creativity. They had a penalty shout as early as the seventh minute when Krishna went down in the box, under pressure from Peter Hartley, after being fed by David Williams. However, the referee ruled otherwise.
ATKMB’s free-flowing game was tactically stopped by Owen Coyle with man-to-man marking and they were finding it difficult to break through Jamshedpur in the first half. Coyle introduced his trusted talisman Nerijus Valskis in the second half and the game started to open up.
It was Valskis who created the first clear goal-scoring opportunity for Jamshedpur from a header, which was brilliantly saved by Arindam Bhattacharya under ATKMB goal. But big teams need one moment of magic to change the match and it came five minutes from time.
And as was the case with a lot of times that Krishna had scored, it was David Williams who created it. After receiving the ball from the Australian, Krishna found the right-hand corner of the goal, past a diving Rehenesh, with a perfect finish.
