12 Kolkata: It was an evening Mohun Bagan Super Giant made their own with a sense of inevitability. A record run at home, record points tally and winning the biggest prize in Indian club football in back-to-back seasons — Jose Molina's brigade brought quite something to the party on Saturday.
They celebrated their Indian Super League Shield-winning show in grand style, defeating second-placed FC Goa 2-0 at the Salt Lake Stadium here and finishing their group stage with a slice of revenge against the visitors.
FC Goa — supervised by India head coach Manuel Manolo — came into the match as the only other team after Bengaluru FC to have been able to conquer Molina's brigade this season. But they lost the plot in the reverse fixture, conceding two goals born out of individual blunders.
On the first occasion, Boris Singh much to everyone's horror saw his back-pass with a header off an ambitious but misdirected long ball from Bagan defender Tom Aldred roll into an empty net with the Goa goalkeeper Hrithik Tiwari also leaving his place with the intention of claiming it in the 63rd minute.
As if that dreadful defensive miscommunication was not enough, Bagan became the beneficiary of another clanger deep into the stoppage time. This time, India's defensive mainstay Sandesh Jhingan messed big time in controlling the ball under pressure from Jason Cummings and Greg Stewart pounced on it to beat the goalkeeper with consummate ease.
Mohun Bagan finished the league stage with the highest number of points (56), record number of wins in a ISL season (17) and an unbeaten run at home (11 wins and one draw). Goa's late chase for the Shield fell eight-point short.
Long before the kick-off, thousands of Bagan fans made it an occasion to remember. They unfurled tifos highlighting the team's legacy and supremacy; they carried out Mexican waves and turned on the flashlight on their mobile phones to set light to the team's ambitions.
Despite having clinched the Shield with two games to spare, Molina opted for a strong side giving only goalkeeper Dheeraj Singh his first game. It's, however, Goa who scored in all their matches in the group stage before Saturday and came close to scoring early on, Iker Guarrotxena missing the target by a whisker while Udanta Singh seeing his goal-bound attempt blocked by Aldred.
However, the highlight of the first half came in the injury time when Manvir Singh did find the back of the net but Goa vehemently protested and referee Rahul Kumar Gupta eventually disallowed it after consultation with fourth official Harish Kundu, judging that Dimitri Petratos had touched the ball with his hand in the build-up of the move.
Goa got a reprieve. But then came two individual mistakes, leading to their downfall in an uncharacteristic way.
Bagan were already into the party mood. They brought the house down with another win; they rang the curtain down on the league stage with another spectacle.