Spirited Rahmatganj back on top

Rahmatganj MFS regained the lead in the JB Bangladesh Premier League with a thrilling 4-3 win over Brothers Union at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

With their sixth win from 10 matches, the Old Dhaka outfit returned to the top with 22 points and stayed one point ahead of Chittagong Abahani. Brothers, on the other hand, stayed at seventh position with 11 points.

Despite the absence of seven key players due to suspension and injuries, Rahmatganj displayed a spirited show from the start with Sohel Mia wreaking havoc down the left flank. The pressure early on clearly had Brothers Union in trouble as they conceded the lead through an own goal in the seventh minute.

Sohel, who was dropped from the national squad after his maiden appearance against Maldives last month, darted into the box and cut it back for Siyo Zunapio, only to see Brothers defender Krishna Pada put it back to his own net.

Brothers showed signs of fight-back as Haitian marksman Walson Anselme rattled the crossbar in the 16th minute before finding the back of the net from a free-kick six minutes later.

Brothers took the lead five minutes later when Nkowcha Kingsley sped into the box and drove an angular shot home only to have the margin leveled again by Rahmatganj's Eleta Benjamin through a well-judged header during stoppage time of the first half.

The game swung back in Rahmatganj's way after the restart and the Old Dhaka outfit wrestled back the lead with a header from Didarul Alam on 64 minutes before Kingsley struck his second goal to make it 3-3 twelve minutes later.

With the game going into stoppage time, Didarul stunned the Brothers camp with a curling a left-footer straight into the back of the net. The seventh goal of this high-scoring thriller proved to be the decisive one as referee Azad Rahman called time immediately after kick-off.

Meanwhile, Team BJMC posted their second victory with a single-goal win over Feni Soccer Club in the day's first match. The win took them to eighth position with 10 points while Feni Soccer Club slipped to ninth with nine points.

Nigerian striker Eleta Kingsley struck the decisive goal in the 15th minute with a side-volley from the top of the six-yard box to give BJMC their second win after two successive defeats while it was a third straight defeat for Feni Soccer Club.