Sheikh Russel KC strolled past Chittagong Abahani with a comfortable 2-0 victory in the Manyavar Bangladesh Premier League at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday. Skipper Mithun Chowdhury and Bosnian defender Bojan Petric’s strike before the breather was enough for Russel who leapfrogged Mohammedan, Abahani and Brothers Union to climb to second in the league table.
Meanwhile in the bottom-of-the-table clash, riding on a brace from Doudou Sonko Team BJMC, into their ninth match, finally saw the face of a win as they crushed Farashganj 4-0.
The win took Russel’s point tally to 19 from nine matches and cut the gap to four points with the defending champions and leaders Sheikh Jamal DC. The defeat saw the port city side slide down to eighth place with only five points.
The return of the Bosnian Bojan, who sat out the last five matches due to injury, stabilised the Russel defence as they eventually claimed a cleen-sheet after four matches.
“Bojan is a key player in our team. He was missing in the team along with Reza and he made the difference on his return after five matches,” said Montenegrin coach Dragan Djukanovic after the game. “We missed our defenders in the last few matches. The young players who replaced Bojan and Reza are not good enough to play at this stage and need more experience.”
Mithun broke the shackles in the 21st minute with a cheeky header through the near post after Nigerian striker Kingsley Chigozie failed to connect Topu Barman’s delivery from the right flank. The margin could have been doubled inside the half-hour mark but Mithun’s effort from the edge of the box flew inches over the crossbar.
However, Bojan smashed home the second in the 39th minute on the back of Paul Emile’s strike on Waly Faisal’s free-kick.
In the day’s other match, the vital win against the Old Dhaka club allowed BJMC move out of the relegation zone who spent most of the season at the bottom.
Mehedi Hassan Tapu opened the scoring for BJMC in the 20th minute with a low header before Senegalese forward Doudou doubled the lead seven minutes into the second-half. Jakir Hossain Ziku made it 3-0 five minutes later and Doudou completed the rout in the injury time.
With four points Farashganj are now at the bottom of the league table while BJMC climbed to ninth place with five points.
