Bagan rally to down F C Kochin

Title holders Mohun Bagan roared back, after being in the arrears twice, to score a thumping 4-2 victory over formidable F C Kochin in a pulsating National Football league encounter, in Calcutta, on Wednesday.

Foreign recruits dominated the day. Bagan's skilful Brazilian striker Jose Ramirez Barretto scored thrice, while the versatile Liberian Sunday Seah struck a brace for F C Kochin in the closely contested match at the giant Salt Lake stadium.

Barretto also played a crucial role in his team's other goal, doing the spadework from the left, to enable substitute Sumit Sengupta find the target from close.

The match saw a Bagan surge in the initial stages, before Kochin went ahead through Seah against the run of play, But the local club equalised seven minutes from the breather through Barretto.

Early in the second half, Seah again put Kochin ahead, but a desperate Bagan raised their game by several notches and, with Barretto leading the charge, established total domination over their rivals, pumping in three goals within a space of 15 minutes.

The tension-packed match was marred by frayed tempers, and Bagan's subsitute striker Amar Ganguly received marching orders in the 81st minute from referee J Ravishankar for punching rival defender Rashidi Williams.

With this victory Bagan consolidated their position in the second spot and emerged sole challengers to leaders East Bengal. With 35 points from 18 outings, Bagan are now three points behind East Bengal, who have played a match less. F C Kochin, who were on an even keel with Bagan on points before the match, remain on 32 points from 18 matches.