Mohammedan Sporting rode on an early strike by Pattrick Okonji to get past Air India 1-0 in a ONGC Cup 10th National Football League match in Kolkata on Friday.
The hosts, desperate to turnaround after an unimpressive show in the last four matches, surged ahead in the 16th minute through a brilliant strike by Pattrick, who fired a rasping right foot angular shot through the far post from the top of the box after a rival defender misheaded a lob by Bijen Singh.
With this win, Sporting improved their tally to 14 points from nine outings while the Mumbai side remained at 10 points from nine matches.
The Airmen, whose skipper Ranty Martins had a poor outing, tried their best to make amends but were done in by poor finishing.
Air India had almost levelled the score in the dying minutes of the first session but Vijith's poor volley off a smart wall pass by Soccor Vello went straight to Sporting custodian Gopal Das, who came to the rescue of his side on several other occasions.
Sporting also had their share of chances and could score twice in the injury time when man-of-the-match Mohammad Mukhtar and Suman Dutta missed from close range.