Facile win for East Bengal

By Our Sports Reporter

KOLKATA, APRIL 1. Kingfisher East Bengal returned to winning ways by getting the better of a spirited Air India, Mumbai 3-1 in a keen 18th round match of the V National Football League here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Sunday.

The win saw the host enhance its lead on top of the league table and with five more rounds to go, East Bengal has 38 points from 17 matches (its 17th round match against Tollygunge Agragami has been scheduled on Thursday) to lead the next placed teams - Mohun Bagan and FC Kochin - by six points.

Air India (which also plays its 17th round match at home against Mahindra United on Thursday) remains on 14 points from 17 matches.

Though the home team initially enjoyed the advantage, the visitors, served by a pack of speedy midfielders in Bungo Singh, Khambiton Singh and Ratan Singh, played well on the counters to harass an otherwise solid East Bengal defence.

Despite creating the openings, the lack of alacrity on the part of the forwards - Godfrey Pereira and Anthony Fernandes - denied Air India an early goal.

East Bengal too seemed to suffer from striking blues as its two- man forwardline of Dipendu Biswas and captain Bijen Singh looked subdued, thanks to some good man-marking by the opposition defence.

It was thus left for men down the order to find the target and left-back Falguni Dutta did the needful in the 36th minute to help East Bengal take the lead.

Coming on the overlap, Dutta made a free run down the left wing and followed it with a rasping right-footer from around 25 yards. The ball bulged the roof of the Air India net, beating custodian Yousuf Ansari who had no answer to the pile-driver.

East Bengal preserved the lead in the first session after surviving two close opportunities when seasoned Pereira (39th minute) and Bungo Singh (41st) narrowly missed the target as Air India forced the home team to huddle back to its own territory.

The second session saw the host draw up more pressure even as Air India utilised its nifty Manipuri medios commendably on the flanks. This opened up the East Bengal defence setting Pereira with two close opportunities in the opposition box.

The seasoned striker did his best, by curling in his right footers, but the shots missed the mark despite beating the East Bengal custodian, Sangram Mukherjee, all ends up.

Mukherjee paid for his habit of charging out, when Ratan Singh, found the equaliser in the 57th minute by lobbing the ball over East Bengal goalkeeper.

Faced with a prospect of losing points, East Bengal tried to recover from the crisis by getting its midfielder Dipankar Roy to work out gaps in the opposition defence.

Roy looked good on the left as he repeatedly broke in to essay measured crosses. Though none of his provisions resulted in a goal, one of them got the opposition 'keeper, Ansari injured, as the latter banged a his head on the upright trying to clear a swerving cross.

Following an eight-minute stoppage, East Bengal struck the equaliser in the 76th minute through substitute Srikanta Dutta, who scored on the rebound after Ansari had cleared Suley Musah's header off a corner.

Dutta, replacing Bijen Singh in the 74th minute, had broken the jinx that had seemed to plague the East Bengal attack-line.

Carlton Chapman, substituting the other forward Dipendu Biswas, enhanced the lead 3-1 in the 88th minute to decide the match in the host's favour.

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