Gostha Paul – The Chinese Wall
The British people did not take this defeat of East Yorkshire Regiment in right spirit. They were very angry on Mohun Bagan and tried to keep Mohun Bagan under pressure.
The dark side of this conspiracy came in 1912 IFA Shield. In the first round, Mohun Bagan faced the then famous team Calcutta F.C. This match was of particular interest because that was the first match in India of which motion pictures had been taken by the famous pioneers of the film industry in India, Messrs. J. F. Madan and Co. It was pre-planned to eliminate Mohun Bagan just from the first round of IFA Shield. In the match, Mohun Bagan scored three goals, but the referee annulled two goals for offside. Mohun Bagan finally lost the match by 1-2. Mohun Bagan captain Mr. Shibdas Bhaduri did not protest in the field but he was very upset regarding this incident and took retirement from his football career. Sudhir Chatterjee was injured and he also took retirement.
This year Mohun Bagan won Nawab Asanulla Challenge Shield. It was the third consecutive victory of Mohun Bagan. Club also grabbed the Bengal Jimkhana shield this year.
Habul Sarkar became the captain of Mohun Bagan in 1913. In 1913 Mohun Bagan did not win any trophy. The club lost to E. B. R in the IFA shield. But this year was memorable for another reason. This year Mohun Bagan got an excellent talented footballer, Gostho Paul, popularly known as “Chinese Wall”. He filled up the void created by retirement of Sudhir Chatterjee. Gostho Pal played his first game for Mohun Bagan at the age of only 16 years in a friendly match in a sloppy ground against Dalhousie. But he did not perform well and experts made the negative comments about him. After two days, there was the match against Black Watch, the league winner at that time. Gostho Paul came to ground with a bit hesitation. But he was amazed when Bhuti Sukul asked him whether he would play with him in the first eleven. In this match, Gostho Paul played brilliantly. From that day onwards, for continuous 23 years he played for Mohun Bagan as successful back. He was also the captain of Mohun Bagan from 1921 to 1927.
In the year 1914, Mohun Bagan got its first chance to participate in the second division of Calcutta League along with Aryans—the previous year Trades Cup winning team. In first year league, Mohun Bagan scored 27 goals in 16 matches . “B” team of 93 Highlanders’ was the champion of the league but they could not be promoted to first division as their first team was already in that division. Mohun Bagan and Measurers shared the same points(22) in the league table. So to decide which team will move to first division, a playoff match was organized between Mohun Bagan and Measurers. First day result was draw but on the second day Mohun Bagan lost the match by 1-2 and Measurers moved to the first division. The CFL committee, however, felt that Mohun Bagan should also be promoted. And this was done as a vacancy in the first division had occurred owing to the withdrawal of the RGA. This year Mr. Dwijendra Nath Bose was selected as the secretary of the club as Major Sailendra Nath Bose had to leave Calcutta for his commitments in the Military Service for the First World War. Mohun Bagan played a charity match against Calcutta FC in the aid of War Relief Fund. This year Mohun Bagan celebrated the Silver Jubilee Year.
In 1915, Mohun Bagan played their first match in first division of Calcutta League on 15th May, 1915 against Calcutta Club. The match resulted in a draw. Just like 1913–14 seasons, Mohun Bagan did not get any trophy during this year also but took fourth position in the Calcutta League and reached the semi-final of the IFA Shield. The junior teams of the club went up to the Semi-Final games in the Trades Cup and Coochbehar Cup. This year Mohun Bagan got the ground of National A.C. The Club shared this ground from 1915 to 1963.
In 1916, Mohun Bagan finished the Calcutta League in second position just behind Calcutta FC and won Cooch Behar Cup and Chandannagar Cup.
In 1917, Mohun Bagan lost to Middlesex team in the IFA shield.
In 1918 and 1919 Mohun Bagan finished third and fourth respectively in Calcutta Football League.