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[caption id="attachment_33580" align="aligncenter" width="580"] Mohun Bagan forward Balwant Singh after scoring his goal on Sunday. Image Source: XtraTime[/caption] Barasat: He had to undergo a terrible injury last season after playing just a few matches in the Hero I-League 2016. Since then, the Punjabi lad had trained and sweated his rehabilitation in an immaculate fashion with the Mohun Bagan physio Garcia for the last 9 months. The perseverance and determination have given Balwant the deserved reward as the forward scored an ineffable goal against Churchill Brothers to help his team grabbing full points to start the league in a positive note. But the match winner for Bagan is thanking the competition he has in the side with Jeje to get a chance to feature in the starting XI. After the win, Balwant said, "I am so happy. The healthy competition I have with Jeje to get a chance in the side inspires me to play my best football." He added, "Not only me, the competition we all have to get a place in playing XI, is what keeps us going. We have a great squad strength and it's always good to have that in a side." Bagan gaffer Sanjoy Sen though confessed that the victory was not easy for them. He stated, "The first game is always tough. I knew that Churchill would give us a good contest and they played reasonably well to put pressure on us. It's a hard fought victory." He also said, "It's good that like the two previous seasons, this time too we have a winning start to the league. I am happy with the end result, the three points." Meanwhile, the gaffer was not happy with the overall performance of his side, as he mentioned, "We have to improve a lot on the attack. Otherwise, it might be a concern for us." But at the same time he lauded his goalscorer by saying, "The goal would give Balwant a lot of confidence. I have a foreign centre forward and it's between him and Jeje to get a place in the starting XI. I am happy that Balwant scored on his come back." Sanjoy was concerned with the way his left back got marching orders. He told, "This was not a pressure game for us. Subhasish Bose is inexperienced and I hope he will learn from this mistake." The successful coach got angry only when the question was asked if he had missed Sony Norde tonight. The irritated Mariners coach said, "How many goals did Sony score last season? My team is not dependent on any individual." Bagan will play Lajong in their next game and Sanjoy has already started planning for that game. He signed off by saying, "If we need to play the next game at Barasat again then we might have to train here a bit because Lajong is used to the artificial turf and they might get an advantage."