HAL Bangalore 0-1 Shillong Lajong: Pradhyum Reddy's side registers their first away win of the season

Shillong Lajong registered their first away win of the season, as they defeated HAL Bangalore 1-0 in a round 18 clash of the I-League, played at the Bangalore Football stadium on Wednesday.

Eugeneson Lyngdoh scored the all important goal for the visitors in the 39^th minute.

M Muralidharan’s side were missing R.C Prakash, who had to sit out the game after having picked up a couple of yellow cards. Shillong Lajong meanwhile started with new recruits Matthew Mayora and Sushil Kumar Singh upfront..

The away side started the game brighter of the two sides and enjoyed the majority of the possession. Their two new strikers built a good rapport almost immediately and troubled the home side's defence from the first minute.

A defensive re-shuffle, which saw Biju Kumar move into midfield and K. Ramesh partnering Rohit Chand in defence proved to be a major goof-up by HAL, as the players often looked clueless and found it difficult to cope with the pace and power of the Lajong attackers.

Sushil soon had a chance to score his first goal for his new team, but HAL's stand-in skipper P. Pramod brilliantly denied the Indian International and then thwarted John Menyongar too, coming out quickly to prevent the Lajong player from finding the back of the net as the Bangalore based side found it difficult to cope with the visiting side's pressing game.

Eventually Pradhyum Reddy’s men took the lead, as in the 40^th minute, Mayora set up Eugeneson Lyngdoh, who made no mistake in putting the visitors ahead.

The hosts could not force an equaliser in the remaining minutes of the first half, as Shillong Lajong went into the break leading by a goal to nil.

The second half started with Shillong Lajong relatively happy to hold on to their slender 1-0 advantage, and the initiative was firmly on the Bangalore based outfit to force home an equaliser.

However they failed to breach the away side’s rearguard with their best chance coming when just after the hour mark they had a strong appeal for a penalty turned away by the referee.

M. Muralidharan’s men though, failed to take advantage of their keeper’s heroics and eventually slumped to a 1-0 loss which helped Shillong Lajong break their own five match winless streak.

The win lifted the away side to 21 points in 18 games and they are now 10 points away from the drop zone, while HAL are firmly rooted to the bottom of the I-League table.