A late goal by Elijah Obagbemiro steered Sporting Clube de Goa to a 1-0 victory over Mohun Bagan in the 10th round of the ONGC I-League at the Nehru Stadium in Margao on Wednesday.
The all important goal came in the 85th minute when custodian Sangram Mukherjeea failed to intercept a Obagbemiro header.
A cross from the right off Denzil Franco was headed by substitute Harmanjot Khabra. Though it was well saved by NS Manju near the goal line but he could keep it close and Obagbemiro did not let go the opportunity in hand.
The third successive win took Sporting's point tally to 12 points from 10 matches.
Bagan played an organised game in the first half but lost way in the second half to remain on 14 points from as many matches. Joseph Pereira of Sporting Clube de Goa got man of the match award.
Bagan probed more often into the rival half as they held more of the exchanges. Sporting Goa defense did a commendable job with zonal marking depriving Bhaichung Bhutia and Jose Baretto scoring opportunities.
Bhaichung Bhutia had one opportunity in the first half but he failed to direct his header.
Sporting got into their grooves in the later part of the first half and had the best chance on an attempt by Adjei Lawrence off a pass from Obagbemiro, but rival custodian did well in negating the danger.
Mohun Bagan had the only opportunity when Jonathan Chimezie headed off a flag kick by James Singh, in the 61st minute but was well saved by Sporting keeper Luis Barreto to save Sporting made a counter move and nearly scored but defender Peter Odafe made a goal line clearance off a Obagbemiro shot.
Sporting then intensified their attack raided the rival territory quite often and even came close to scoring on couple of occassions, but finally broke the deadlock at the 85th minute.
