The Hindu : Sport / Football : East Bengal retains NFL title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 29, 2004

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Sport - Football

East Bengal retains NFL title

By Our Sports Reporter

KOLKATA, APRIL 28. Kingfisher East Bengal kept its date with history in style retaining the eighth edition of the National Football League with two rounds to spare. The opportunity was perfectly chosen as the red-and-gold brigade performed the feat in front of a boisterous home crowd at the Salt Lake Stadium, beating the bottom-placed Chennai visitor Indian Bank 3-0 here in a 20th round match on Wednesday.

Celebrations gained crescendo as old records tumbled to give way for new as the city giant matched its traditional rival — Mohun Bagan — winning the crown for the third time.

The fixtures still have 16 more matches, but the championship was already decided as East Bengal kept its incredible march ahead netting 46 points. The schedule will now hover around determining the other positions below.

East Bengal, however, has another record to chase — breaking the 50-point barrier in the table. East Bengal will now travel to Goa to play the remaining two matches against Churchill Brothers (May 2) and Haywards Sporting Clube (May 12).

The contest on Wednesday was reduced to a formality, as the Chennai side did not possess the ammunition to dent the resolve of the host. Baichung Bhutia, Brazilian Douglas Da Silva and Dipankar Roy scored in that order.

The only option left for Indian Bank in the match was defending and the visitor deputed half the strength of the team in the back.

Bhutia drew the first blood finishing one such move in the 19th minute. The first session did not see any more damage as the host missed a couple of opportunities of enhancing the lead — defender Subhasish Roy Chowdhury saw his header coming off the crosspiece in the 29th minute while Douglas' long-ranger was cleared off the line by Indian Bank stopper-back J. Anthony Noel.

The host continued with the slender lead for the most of the second session before Douglas finally succeeded in pushing up the count in the 73rd minute. The Brazilian scored from a spectacular effort flying into the Indian Bank box to reach a cross from Shylo Malswamtulunga.

Dipankar Roy sealed the fate of the match with his 83rd minute goal but it assumed an aura of controversy, as Bijen Singh, who reached Roy with a back-pass, appeared to have clearly crossed the goalline before essaying the ball.

Points table

East Bengal — 20-14-4-2-35-11-46; Dempo SC — 20-10-9-1-22-9-39; Mahindra United — 19-11-3-5-31-18-36; Churchill Brothers — 20-9-5-6-28-24-32; JCT Mills — 19-8-6-5-22-20-30; Haywards Sporting Clube — 19-7-5-7-30-28-26; Vasco SC — 19-5-8-6-20-19-23; Salgaocar SC — 20-6-5-9-20-21-23; Mohun Bagan — 19-5-4-10-18-22-19; Tollygunge Agragami — 20-4-7-9-14-21-19; Mohammedan Sporting — 19-4-6-9-16-32-18; Indian Bank — 19-2-2-15-13-40-8. (Read as under — played, won, drawn, lost, goals in favour, goals against and points).

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