Subair Murithala Ali of United SC in action at Salt Lake Stadium on Tuesday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: United SC collected full three points from their I-League match, beating a hapless Vasco Sports Club 3-1, at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Tuesday.

If the scoreline seems inadequate in proving United’s dominance over Vasco, one needs to be informed that United were reduced to 10 men in the 20th minute of the match.

Subrata Bhattacharjee’s wards had to wait for the first goal till stoppage time of the first half, and when it finally came, it was an own goal. United players had only themselves to blame for that delay as they wasted a lot of chances right through the first half.

After United’s Gauranga Dutta and Subair Murithala Ali headed and shot all over the place, Vasco defender Fulganco Cardozo did the needful. He tapped in Snehasish Chakraborty’s cross at the goalmouth after Murithala failed to get his foot to the ball.

The real drama of the first half, however, had unfolded in the 20th minute when United’s Dulal Biswas was sent off for elbowing Ravshan Teshabaev off the ball. Dulal deserved to be punished but interestingly, Gauranga went unpunished even after head-butting the referee. His reaction to his teammate’s send-off seemed to suggest that United, looking the better team till then, would lose the plot. But the underrated city team impressed everyone by keeping their cool. In fact, they improved after losing Dulal.

In the second half, United played the way a team fighting relegation should play. They were always the better team but were not managing to finish. That they did early in the second half through Snehasish. This young man is a workhorse and the goal, more than anything else, was a reward for his efforts. Getting a lob from the half-line from Sukhen Dey, Murithala got into the penalty area and sent a cross to the goalmouth. Vasco custodian Milagrio Medeira, was unchallenged and should have stopped it. He could not and an opportunistic Snehasish sent the ball in with a deft touch.

Unless somebody counted the heads, United looked like playing with a man more, not a man less. Vasco lagged far behind in ball possession and always had their backs to the wall. The third goal seemed to be an inevitable incident. It came two minutes from time.

It was the most planned one of the three. The move was another Snehasish creation. He passed to R. Dhanarajan inside the box, who crossed to an advancing Murithala. The Nigerian headed the ball across the goalmouth to send it in at the second post.

Mohun Bagan coach Karim Bencharifa was at the ground to have a look at United, his team’s next opponents. He must have realised that United would be a thorn in his team’s flesh with a performance like this. Nevertheless, Vasco coach Elvis Goes was not far from reality when he said after the match that his boys “did not belong to this level.”

Teams

United SC: Gopal Das, Kingshuk Debnath, R. Dhanarajan, Hardeep Singh, Subair Murithala Ali, Snehasish Chakraborty, Dulal Biswas, Ayeni Bidemi Daniel, Sankar Oraon (Sukhen Dey 46), Lal Malsawma Hamar (Lal Malsawma Hamar 58), Gauranga Dutta.

Vasco: Milagrio Medeira, Sunil Kumar, Covan Lawrence, Jose Colaco, Agnelo D’Souza (Sherzod Nazarov 71), Elvino Fernandes, Minino Fernandes, Fulganco Cardozo (Abhishek Yadav 46), Lalnum Puia, Ravshan Teshabaev, Yorkin Nazarov (Vincent Pires 42).

Referee: .P. Thakur.

MoM: Snehasish Chakraborty.