Mumbai: Bikash Jairu’s 84th minute strike helped Jamshedpur to their first consecutive away victories even as Mumbai City continued it’s dismal home run in the fourth edition of the Indian Super League.
The game ended 2-1 in favour of the visitors which lifted them to the top four with 22 points after 14 games, while Mumbai slumped to sixth five behind the ‘Men of Steel’ with a game at hand.
In a loosely-contested game that was full of missed opportunities, an Sandhu Pradhan own-goal put Jamshedpur ahead in the 37th minute. But Everton Santos restored parity in the 79th minute, only for substitue Jairu to score from a rebound six minutes into the final whistle.
Mumbai would however consider their squandered chances that could have easily turned the tables but instead succumbed them to a straight home defeat, that kept them at sixth, seven points far from the top.
Faruk Choudhary’s run after nutmegging Gerson Vieria saw the winger shoot straight at Amrinder which the latter parried away. The ball then struck the heel of Mumbai City defender Marcio Rozario before being finally driven into the roof of the net by Pradhan’s desperate attempt to clear.
Pradhan almost immediately made amends but was denied from a fine fingertip save from Subrata Paul. It was one of the multiple saves Paul made in the night eventually earning him the Hero of the Match award.
But Mumbai’s lone goal came from his fable attempt. Thiago Santos’ corner in the 79th minute was poorly cleared by the custodian and rebounded off Everton’s head to land inside the goal. The goal brought Mumbai back into the match and had Balwant put in atleast one of the three opportunities he received, the ‘Islanders’ could have sealed the match.
He was though Mumbai’s busiest man on the pitch but squandered many chances. The first arose when Anas Edathodika had slipped out of his line to put Balwant through on goal, but the striker failed to capitalise allowing the defender to get back in time.
The other two were clean headers he would have buried any other day, but on the night fired straight at Paul who was happy to practise some keeping.
But Mumbai will rue their missed chances when Jairu came off the bench to score the winner. Andre Bikey’s cross was met by Kervens Belfort’s shot, which was somehow kept out by Amrinder Singh but the rebound fell to a rushing Jairu and the full-back made no mistake to rifle it in.