Ashim Das at the Mohun Bagan ground on Thursday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: It was another bad day in office for Mohun Bagan on Thursday. The defending champions had all the problems on a soggy outfield, and, eventually settled for a 1-1 draw with George Telegraph in the Sahara CFL Premier Division at home. This was green-and-maroon’s second draw in the league.

Dipendu Biswas scored for the home team in the 43rd minute while the equaliser came via Ashim Das in the 57th minute.

Mohun Bagan were happy to go into the lemon break with a 1-0 lead, but the complexion changed drastically after George Telegraph boys started taking control of the proceedings in the second session.

The first session was marked by aimless display by both sides, with the first scoring chance came in the 32nd minute.

Mohun Bagan then took the lead two minutes from break, when a Satyajit Bose centre was received by Surojit, who shot the ball straight onto the George Telegraph goalie Swarup Das. But Dipendu was there, lurking in the six-yard box, snapping up the rebound.

After the break, Mohun Bagan tried to play a defensive game and this allowed the less-fancied side to come back into contention. They made regular forays into the green-and-maroon area but had to wait till the 57th minute to restore parity when an aerial ball from Goutam Thakur was headed home by Ashim in immaculate fashion.

Mohun Bagan had fielded several players from the Indian team that did duty against Saudi Arabia in an AFC Asian Cup qualifier on Wednesday.

Sensing the need of the hour, coach Biswajit Bhattacharya brought three replacements — Bhaichung, Lalawmpuia and Chinmoy Sarkar to strengthen his forwardline, but the winner remained elusive.

Mohun Bagan are on four points from three matches while George Telegraph have five points after five outings.

TEAMS

Mohun Bagan: Sangram Mukherjee, Dulal Biswas, Sanjeev Maria, Deepak Mondal, Bijoy Basfore, Satyajit Bose, Suman Dutta (Chinmoy Sarkar 69), Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Subhas Chakraborty (P.C. Lalawmpuia 87), Surojit Bose (Bhaichung Bhutia 68), Dipendu Biswas.

George Telegraph: Swarup Das, Mohan Chakraborty, Gour Naskar, Shyam Mondal, Dipak Singh, Manik Burman (Sheikh Sanjib 73), Achintya Saha, Amit Biswas, Ashim Das, Goutam Thakur (Paban Das 79), Yousuf Ibrahim Tijani (Raju Ghosh 90+).

Referee: Debjit Das.

Man of the Match: Ashim Das.