1945 IFA Shield final

The 1945 IFA Shield Final was the 53rd final of the IFA Shield, the second oldest football competition in India, and was contested between Kolkata giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan on 9 August 1945 at the Calcutta Ground in Kolkata.

1945 IFA Shield Final

East Bengal captain Paritosh Chakravarti and Mohun Bagan captain Anil Dey before the start of the match
Event	1945 IFA Shield
East Bengal Mohun Bagan 1 0
Date	9 August 1945
Venue	Calcutta Ground, Kolkata, West Bengal
Referee	Segt. McBride
← 1944 1947 →

East Bengal won the final 1–0 to claim their 2nd IFA Shield title. Fred Pugsley scored the only goal of the match in the second half as East Bengal lifted their second IFA Shield title.^[1]

Route to the final

East Bengal		Round	Mohun Bagan
Opponent	Result	Round	Opponent	Result
Barisal F.A.	2–0	Second Round	B & A Railway	2–0
Hyderabad Police	2–0	Third Round	Wari Club Dhaka	1–0
Bogra Town	3–1	Quarter–Final	Bhawanipore	2–0
Kalighat	2–1	Semi–Final	Calcutta F.C.	1–0

Match

Summary

The IFA Shield final began at the Calcutta Ground in Kolkata on 9 August 1945 in front of a packed crowd as Kolkata giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan faced each other in a Kolkata Derby for the first time ever in a major tournament final. East Bengal reached their fourth consecutive final, having lost the previous one to Eastern Bengal Railway in 1944. Mohun Bagan also made their fourth appearance in the final after having lost the previous two in 1923 and 1940, being champions in 1911, after they defeated Calcutta F.C. 1–0 in the semi-final.^[1]

East Bengal however, were dominant from the start as they created multiple scoring opportunities with their forward line consisting of Fred Pugsley, Appa Rao, Sunil Ghosh, Swami Nayar, and T. Kar constantly creating pressure on the Mohun Bagan defense. The Mohun Bagan custodian D. Sen made a few excellent saves to keep them in the match however, it was in the sixteenth minute of the second half when a powerful attempt by Sunil Ghosh got deflected of a defender and fell onto the feet of Pugsley, who scored with a powerful right footed shot to make in 1–0. Mohun Bagan did get a few chances in the dying minutes of the match but East Bengal goalkeeper A. Mukherjee managed to keep a clean sheet as East Bengal lifted their second IFA Shield title.^[2][3][4][5]

Details

East Bengal	1–0	Mohun Bagan
Pugsley 41'

9 August 1945

14:00 IST

Calcutta Ground, Kolkata

Attendance: 30,000 (est.)

Referee: Segt. McBride

East Bengal

Mohun Bagan

GK Amitabha Mukherjee CB N. Guha CB Paritosh Chakravarti (c) CM Dhirendranath Chanda CM S. M. Kaiser CM Mohabir Prasad FW Titu Kar FW M. Apparao FW Fred Pugsley FW Sunil Ghosh FW Swami Nayar

GK Dwipen Sen CB Sarat Das CB Sailen Manna CM Anil Dey (c) CM Talimeren Ao CM Dwipen Sen FW Nirmal Chatterjee FW Butchi FW Bijon Bose FW Nimu Bose FW Nirmal Mukherjee

Match rules 50 minutes. Joint winners if both finals ends in a draw