Eastern Railway goalie Tapan Karmakar after saving Ashim Biswas’ penalty at the East Bengal ground on Friday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: ‘Go back Ashim Biswas, we don’t want you,’ roared the fans after East Bengal’s goalless misadventure against Eastern Railway at home.

The stands were no more than half-full, but the few thousands who turned up had expected the team to get back on track after the Mohun Bagan reversal. That didn’t happen as the red-and-golds produced their worst performance of the season. And Ashim, yet to score since East Bengal’s season-opener, had another pedestrian game ‘capped’ by a missed penalty in the 87th minute.

It was a godsend opportunity, as referee Dhanapati Roy pulled up Tapan Karmakar for reasons beyond comprehension. As the Eastern Railway goalkeeper dived to deny Ashim a crack at goal, the striker lost momentum and fell down. It happened well inside the penalty box, but was hardly Karmakar’s fault. The referee, at least 20 yards away from the spot, pointed to the dreaded spot. A lengthy protest from the stunned railwaymen couldn’t convince him to change his decision.

Ashim himself took the shot only to see Karmakar diving to his right and stopping the ball. If at all a team deserved poetic justice, this was it. Eastern Railway had fought bravely enough to deserve a point. Just as significantly, East Bengal hadn’t played well enough to deserve maximum returns.

Ashim was actually lucky to be on the field so long. He should have been sent off in the 61st minute for a nasty retaliation after being fouled by Eastern Railway left-back Shubhankar Maity. Both players ended up being cautioned, another poor piece of supervision by Roy.

The rains stayed away, the ground was almost bone dry, but that wasn’t enough to inspire the East Bengal players. The midfield lacked ideas, the forwards didn’t show much emergency, most of the forays were down the right channel.

That East Bengal got no more than two clear openings tells its own story. Gouranga Dutta failed to head into an open goal in the first half, while Duley couldn’t tap in an inviting Vimal Pariyar cross after change of ends. Barun Kundu was outstanding in the heart of Eastern Railway defence as was Karmakar under the bar.

East Bengal’s defence didn’t portray a solid picture. Gurpreet Singh looked secure, but the others — including Brazilian Luiz Octavio de Souza — were far from convincing.

Mohammed Nadim, who impressed with his enterprise and shooting skill, pounced on an Octavio mistake and pushed goalwards only to see Abhra Mondal stretching out a leg and deflecting the ball to safety. A little later, Nadim tried a swerving shot from almost 40 yards out which didn’t miss by much.

C. Henry had a couple of opportunities too. He managed to get past Gurpreet but fired his left-footer wide. Then he badly misdirected a header off a corner.

In the end, it was a just result. One which has opened up the title-race. With East Bengal managing a solitary point in their last two games, their gap with Mohun Bagan has come down to four points.

TEAMS

East Bengal: Abhra Mondal, Vincent Pires, Luiz Octavio de Souza, Gurpreet Singh, Snehashish Chakraborty, Chandan Das (Sasthi Duley, 31), Dipankar Roy, Jayanta Sen, Debabrata Roy (Raju Singh, 89), Ashim Biswas, Gouranga Dutta (Vimal Pariyar, 46)

Eastern Railway: Tapan Karmakar, Babun Kar, Barun Kundu, Shubhankar Maity (Santanu Bit, 65), Bijoy Das, Niladri Chakraborty, Pervez Alam, Hemant Chhetri, Sanjit Dutta Bhowmick (Mohammed Nadim, 38), Samrat Roy Chowdhury (Mohammed Farid Molla, 67), C. Henry

Referee: Dhanapati Roy

Man of the Match: Tapan Karmakar