Mumbai FC hold Lajong, visitors allege cheating

Shillong: Mumbai FC and Shillong Lajong today played a 1-1 draw in a I-League match, which saw heated

arguments being exchanged between the match officials and the visiting team here. The result saw Lajong climbing to the ninth position with 25 points, while the relegation-threatened visitors remained tottering second from the bottom with 22 points. In the 16th minute of the first half, Pradeep Mohanraj of Mumbai FC tapped in a simple left footer and took the lead. The home side equalised it in the 79th minute, when Aibor Khonjee scored with a terrific header off a pass from Kelechi Okoyo. Both sides appeared out of touch, as they failed to convert from a number of open chances. During the breather, the ground staff watered one side of the ground, leading to discontentment in the Mumbai FC camp. However, they continued with the game. In the second half, Mumbai`s scorer Mohanraj was shown the second yellow card for allegedly delaying the match. He was injured in a tackle with the Lajong player, which made referee Minangsu Bhattacherjee call for the stretcher. But, Mohanraj refused and started hopping towards the sideline, prompting the referee to show him the second yellow card. Soon after the match, Mumbai officials verbally confronted the referees in the field prompting security men to troop in to control the situation. Later, at a press conference, Mumbai coach Khalid Jamil said, "It was a silly card. He (Mohanraj) is a tall boy and the stretcher was small, so he came running out." Jamil also protested the other judgements of the referee and alleged that he was `shouting` at the players. "Also they (ground staff) put water on their side (Lajong). Why? I would not have said anything had the whole ground was watered.” "It was clear cheating. From referee to administration, they played a foul game," the Mumbai coach alleged. PTI