Junior shines as Chirag thump ONGC

 The Nigerian helped Joshimar D’Silva score the first goal in the 42nd minute. Junior opened his account in the 55th minute, while Denson Devadas (61st) and Lalkamal Bhowmick (82nd) completed the rout against the listless Mumbai minnows who reduced the margin through Baba Tunde (59th, 90th).

Bolstered by the presence of Subrata Bhattacharya, Chirag United began on an aggressive note as the ONGC found the going tough. In a 42nd-minute move, Junior picked a through pass from Lalkamal and put it inside the box for the surging Joshimar to shoot past the ONGC goalkeeper Rajat Ghosh Dastidar.

Ten minutes after the break, Junior fired a shot from a Gouranga Dutta pass inside the box as ONGC defence was nowhere to be seen. But ONGC struck four minutes later when Baba Tunde struck with a left-footer. Devadas capitalised on defensive lapse as the medio nodded in a low header to give Chirag a 3-1 lead.

In the 82nd minute, Lalkamal struck from the left flank. But ONGC reduced the margin through Baba Tunde’s timely header through the far post at the stroke of fulltime.

Chirag United now have 18 points, while ONGC remained on the last position with seven points after 12 matches each.

In another match, Salgaocar rode on a 34th-minute strike from Ryuji Sueoka to notch up a 1-0 win over Mumbai FC at the the Sahu Maharaj grounds in Kolhapur.

Mandjou Keita finished with a hat-trick in hosts Pune FC’s commanding 4-0 win over JCT at the Balewadi Sports Complex. Asim Hassan scored the other goal in the 66th minute.