Last season’s runners-up Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting Club earned full points edging Farashganj Sporting Club 1-0 in their second Bangladesh League outing at the Kamalapur stadium on Monday.
Away at the Cox’s Bazar stadium, visiting Sheikh Russell KC recorded a convincing 3-0 win over hosts Chittagong Mohammedan SC to share the lead with Dhaka Mohammedan on equal six points after two successive victories.
The black and white outfit, who earlier beat Chittagong Abahani by the same scoreline, got the break when striker Rony Islam smashed the solitary goal in the 42nd minute.
The youthful Mohammedan started with good pace and continued to create chances in the first half but slowly lost control of the midfield.
The Dhaka giants got the lead three minutes before the halftime break from a counter-attack when their Nigerian forward Emeka Christiano provided a through pass to Rony, who took a moment to control the ball before beating rival goalkeeper Sujon Chowdhury with a low right-foot drive.
Farashganj kept their day’s challengers busy with frequent attacks in the second half but they were not lucky enough to get the equalizer, though their coach Kamal Babu blamed poor refereeing for this.
‘We actually played against the referee, who ignored a genuine penalty and overlooked many fouls made by Mohammedan players. However, it is also true that our strikers could not finish well because of lack of experience,’ said Kamal.
Mohammedan coach Shafiqul Islam Manik also agreed with his counterpart about bad judgements but he argued that the referee ignored some decisions which were in their favour. He was also not satisfied with the way his boys played in the second half.
Our Cox’s Bazar correspondent adds: Moroccan Abbas gave Sheikh Russell an early lead in the 11th minute before his compatriot Samir Omari doubled the margin in the 19th minute. Young striker Wahed sealed the fate of the game hitting the third seven minutes into the second half while Chittagong Mohammedan were reduced to 10 men after Biplob Das was sent off in the 76th minute for his second bookable offence.
