Kolkata: Mohammedan Sporting played out a goalless draw with United SC, who were reduced to 10 men in a round six Airtel I-League clash at the Salt Lake Stadium here Thursday.
United SC defender Bello Rassaq was the player sent off after receiving two yellows but the purple shirts held on to a point. Bolstered by five new signings, Mohammedan Sporting came into this game full of confidence as they grabbed their first win of the season on round five against Rangdajied United.
Only two of those new players -- Manish Maithani and Luis Barreto -- were named in the squad by coach Moshood Bola Abdul Aziz and with the backing of their passionate fans the 122-year-old club made a fast start. Young Collin Abranches and Australian Tolgay Ozbey both tested United SC goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee while at the other end Mohammedan Sporting was looking solid in defence following the return of Brazilian Luciano Sobrosa from injury.
The first real opening of the game came when Tolgay got behind the United SC backline but Sangram came out of his goal quickly and cleared the danger. Straight at the other end midfielder Shouvik Chakraborty narrowly missed for United SC.
The second half took time to come alive but United SC slowly started having more possession and then Eric Brown had the best attempt of the match as his left-footed effort from just outside the box hit the bar after taking a touch off Mohammedan Sporting custodian Ashok Singh.
Mohammedan Sporting's three foreign attackers -- Penn Orji, Josimar and Tolgay -? were all seeing the ball a lot in key areas but each of them were wasteful either with their final ball or finish. Around the midway point of the second half, United SC's striker Ranti Martins also started to have a bigger influence on the game as he was starting to link up more with his midfielders.
But the game turned in Mohammedan Sporting's favour when Bello was shown his second yellow for a foul on Josimar in the 71st minute. However, Mohammedan Sporting failed to capitalise on their numerical advantage with their only genuine opportunity coming when Sangram failed to a collect cross from Penn but Josimar's effort was cleared off the line by Dhanachandra Singh.
United SC defended solidly and could have even got maximum points as Ranti went agonisingly close with a powerful effort from just outside the box. The result drops United SC to fifth place with the purple shirts winless in four now, while Mohammedan Sporting are 10th with four points from five matches.
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