I-League: Bagan rides on Fran Gonzalez’s brace to register first win of the season

Mohun Bagan's first win of the season sees it move to fourth in the table, one place behind East Bengal, while TRAU stays rock bottom.

Fran Gonzalez celebrates after giving Mohun Bagan the lead against TRAU.

Mohun Bagan rode on Fran Gonzalez’s brace to beat a below par TRAU 4-0 and record its first win of the I-League season at the Kalyani Stadium on Wednesday.

Bagan’s victory helped it jump from ninth to fourth place and provided some relief to coach Kibu Vicuna.

Bagan rectified the mistakes it made against Churchill Brothers and applied pressure from the start, seizing initiative to score in the fifth minute. An opportune Fran Gonzalez slotted in from a scramble in the box off a Joseba Beitia corner.

Bagan built some fine moves thanks to V.P. Suhair’s energetic efforts. Gurjinder Kumar and Daniel Cyrus kept the TRAU attackers at bay and Ashutosh Mehta was a lively presence across the right flank.

The host came close to scoring on some occasions, including the one in the 19th minute when Julien Colinas missed a sitter after being set up by Nongdamba Norem inside the area.

Bagan doubled the lead when Mehta, who received a superb long ball, crossed it across the face of the goal. Suhair slid to score in the 38 minute.

Moments after resumption, Gonzalez got his brace with a right-footed effort after the TRAU defence was caught napping.

TRAU hardly threatened the opposition goal in the first half and missed two golden opportunities in the second. Substitue Subha Ghosh’s 90th minute strike was the icing on the cake for Bagan.