Debutant Bengaluru FC continued their dream run by posting a 2-1 win over Mohammedan Sporting from Kolkata to maintain their unbeaten record after four matches in the Airtel I-League football tournament here Thursday.
First-half goals by John Johnson (12th) and Sean Rooney (28th) underlined BFC's dominance as the hosts picked up three points to take their tally to 10 from four outings while the visitors slid to their third consecutive defeat and are still to garner a point despite a late surge that saw their Brazilian import Josimar da Silva scoring in the 78th..
While BFC's victory was not a surprise, they still had to contend with Sporting's determined bids that however came to naught due to a combination of poor finish and alert goalkeeping by Pawan Kumar until the Josimar strike.
After forced on the defensive in the early minutes when Sporting displayed impressive pace and came up with incisive moves, BFC bounced back and Johnson's header, though against the run of play, put them ahead.
The goal put some zing in the BFC play that was marked by speedy moves down the wings with Rooney being in the thick of things as usual.
Not surprisingly, Rooney managed to get a touch to a floater from the right as he squeezed out a low header into the net despite being surrounded by a bunch of Sporting defenders.
Towards the end of first-half, Sporting looked more threatening, but as in their previous games, the finish lacked sting and finesse even as Pawan Kumar answered all the questions thrown at him by the rival forwards.
On change of ends, the trend continued with Sporting having more of say in the exchanges, but again unable to breach the BFC defence with the forwards not showing much creativity.
BFC, on their part, attacked at every opportunity and past the 68th minute, Rooney almost struck when he broke through on his own, but shot into goalkeeper Sukhwinder Singh before the ball was cleared for an abortive flag-kick.
Soon after, Robin Singh, coming off the bench, did score, but the goal was disallowed for off-side. Sporting made the best of the reprieve as Josimar soared high to nod home a flag-kick in the 78th minute to keep his team in the game, but his goal could not avert defeat for the Kolkata outfit.
