The Hindu : Sport : Bengal rallies to win Santosh Trophy

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Bengal rallies to win Santosh Trophy

Amitabha Das Sharma

Denson Devadas slots in two brilliant goals to sink Punjab

— PHOTO: Sushanta Patronobish

CHAMPION:The victorious Bengal football team poses with the Santosh Trophy.

KOLKATA: Denson Devadas did the star turn for Bengal with two brilliant goals to help the host overhaul a goal's deficit and beat Punjab 2-1 in the final of the 64th senior National football championship at the Salt Lake Stadium on Sunday.

Playing in front of a big holiday crowd of around 10,000, an injury-riddled Bengal fired up an inspired performance to regain the Santosh Trophy after a break of 11 years. This was the 30th occasion the State had registered its supremacy in the championship.

Bengal made up the deficit in its attack by mobilising its midfield to work up the pressure on Punjab. This meant one of its two central halves played a more assertive role to come in aid of its only striker Robin Singh. Bengal's plan was remarkably taken ahead by Devadas, who proved his versatility as an attacking midfielder.

Impressive

Devadas, pairing up with Jayanta Sen in the middle, impressed with his clever distribution to see Bengal attacking from both the flanks its through its wingers Snehasish Chakraborty and Gouranga Dutta.

Despite getting one of its injured strikers Tarif Ahemd to start off, Bengal coach Shabbir Ali was soon convinced about the need of a fitter player and brought in midfielder Souvik Chakraborty to replace Tarif in the 36th minute.

Before he was replaced, Tarif had found his header coming off the upright in the 18th minute. The miss proved costly as Punjab came up against the tide to find the lead off a smart counter-attack. Balwant Singh, the team's most prolific scorer, added one more to his tally by neatly heading home a Rahul Kumar centre at the stroke of the half hour.

Bengal refused to crumble and tried to regroup for the equaliser. The host's efforts were realised in the injury-time when Devadas head-flicked a low corner from Snehasish Chakraborty to even the honours before the break.

Keeping the pressure on

Bengal mounted more pressure on Punjab, which somehow struggled to break out of its submissive shell. With the usual flourish of its strikers Balwant and Balraj Singh missing, the Punjab attackers were easily chased out by a dogged Bengal defence.

While Robin found himself closely marked by the Punjab defenders, Devadas moved up once again to carry out his job as the surrogate attacker.

Devadas, who plays for Chirag United SC here, found the top angle of the Punjab goal in the 78th minute with a booming left-footer after had Robin set him up with a short pass which opened a corridor in the opposition's defence.

Punjab's veteran coach Jagir Singh tried out a series of changes to tidy the flagging attack but the visitor could not bring up the right move to level the scoreline and push the match to a longer duration.

The result: Final: Bengal 2 (Denson Devadas 45+2, 78th minute) bt Punjab 1 (Balwant Singh 30th) .

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