SPO26 Sports Mohammedan Sporting edge past Mahindra in I-League Kolkata, Oct 24 IANS Nigerian Mike Okoro's late strike guided local challengers Mohammedan Sporting to a solitary goal win over Mumbai's Mahindra United in an I-league encounter here Friday. Okoro found the target in the 73rd minute to enable his side register their first win in the current edition of the glamorous soccer league at the Salt Lake stadium. The seasoned striker latched on to a sudden pass from the mid-field catching the Mahindra defenders off-guard and outwitted medio N.P. Pradeep and goal-keeper Subhasis Roy Chowdhury before sending the ball into the net. After five matches, Sporting are in the eighth place with five points, with Mahindra two rungs lower in the order with three points. Taking the field without their star striker Theodore Sunday, Sporting started at a slow pace, adopting a defensive approach. Mahindra, on the other hand, tried to use the wings to breach the heavily fortified Sporting defence, and got an early chance that was muffed up by Steven Dias. Though Sporting had the larger share of ball possession, the visitors relied on faster counter-attacks, and in the ninth minute Edeh Chidi's long-ranger finished off-target. Chidi was policed to submission by Madhab Das and Farooq Haider, and that blunted the Mahindra attacks. After looking disoriented in the first session, the black and whites picked up the tempo after the lemon break. At the stroke of an hour, Sporting came close to scoring, as Okoro launched into a solo from the midfield, but was ultimately thwarted inside the opponent penalty area by the Mahindra defenders. But after Sporting got the goal, Mahindra launched a series of counters, but that was no enough to alter the scoreline. --Indo-Asian News Service ssp/av/jg 318 Words 24102221