Muktis edge past Sheikh Russel

Muktijoddha striker Enamul Haque (C) is the toast of his teammates after scoring the opening goal of his team's 2-1 victory over defending champions Sheikh Russel in their Bangladesh Premier League match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday. PHOTO: STAR

Muktijoddha Sangsad leaped to fourth position in the Bangladesh Premier League beating defending champions Sheikh Russel KC 2-1 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
The All Reds, who came into the match on the back of two consecutive defeats and with only four points from four matches, inflicted their second defeat on the treble-winners of last season, after getting the better of the same opponents in a group match of the Federation Cup.
Muktijoddha reaped the rewards of playing attacking football by scoring a goal in either half, before Younes Roux pulled one  back for Russel.  The opening goal came in the 22nd minute when former national forward Enamul Haque scored with a powerful drive from the edge of the box to break a goal-draught stretching back more than two years. Sheikh Russel, on the other hand, looked short of spirit and attacking intent.
Muktijoddha started the second half in the same vein and got their second goal in the 50th minute when Nigerian forward Nkowcha Kingsley beat the Sheikh Russel keeper Biplob Bhattacharjee with a similar attempt to Enamul's from a similar position.
Three minutes later, Ibnul Siraji's thunderous attempt missed the Sheikh Russel goal by a whisker.
But having gone to a 2-0 lead, Muktijoddha resorted to a counterattacking strategy as Sheikh Russel poured forward in search of a goal. They pulled one back in the 73rd minute when Moroccan forward Younes Roux scored with an angular shot past the goalie after receiving a square pass from Mithun Chowdhury. Sheikh Russel were mighty unlucky not to get a second goal ten minutes later as Ricardo Cousins's swirling free-kick from the left side box came off the woodwork after taking a fingertip from Liton.
Muktijoddha too had their chances to increase the margin in stoppage time as Eleta Kingsley had a powerful shot from inside the box, but Biplob this time managed to punch it for a corner to keep the margin of defeat to a minimum.
Both coaches, Muktijoddha's Shafiqul Islam Manik and Sheikh Russel's Maruful Haque, admitted that Muktijoddha's foreign recruits made the difference.
“We had a few injuries to key players, some were coming back from injuries while some had been injured prior to the match. And overall, their foreign strikers are in much better shape than us,” said last year's treble-winning coach Maruful Haque.
“We had played well in the previous matches as well. But somehow the goals were not coming. Today out strikers availed two of the five-six chances they got and it mattered. We might have won by a bigger margin, but I'm happy with three points,” said Manik.
Despite their second defeat in five matches, Sheikh Russel remain in third position with nine points.