Super-sub Naorem Mahesh Singh struck in the 84th minute as Shillong Lajong FC stunned defending champion Minerva Punjab FC 1-0 for its second win of the I-League season, here on Friday.
Shillong Lajong is placed at the bottom of the points table. The result means that it is the eighth consecutive game for the defending champion where it hasn’t been able to secure a win.
The host, which made some interesting moves through both sides of the flank, couldn’t really find success partly due to lack of a good finish, and partly due to the observant and strong defence line of Lajong.
Minerva, however, managed to break into the opposition box a few times, but couldn’t really captalise on the opportunities.
On the other hand, while Shillong made a limited number of moves its attacks were more organised. However, its problems were similar to Minerva — lack of a good finish.
Shillong, got very close to taking the lead when Khongsit made an attempt from from inside the box. It was however, defended by the hosts in the 31st minute.
The second half began with defending champions pressing hard from the first minute, but credit to Lajong’s goalkeeper Lachenpa and their defence for not providing any clear opportunity to the hosts.
In the 56th minute, Shillong brought in Naorem Mahesh Singh, replacing Samuel Lalmuanpuia and that brought around a sea change to the visitors’ attacking style. Mahesh in combination with Khongsit made continuous attempts, finding ways into the Minerva box, but failed to take the lead.
Shillong’s attacking game, which was already troubling the Minerva defence, finally yielded results in the 84th minute when an attentive Mahesh Singh found the back of the net, scoring on a rebound from Minerva goalkeeper Nidhin Lal. The rebound was a result of a shot from Sheen that Nidhin saved but failed to collect safely.