East Bengal’s B. Beikhokhei (right) and Budhiram Tudu in action against Railway FC during the CFL Premier Division match at the Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: East Bengal, so far this season, have witnessed too many troughs and very few, in fact no, crests. On Wednesday, it was a further addition to their list of disappointments as they were held 2-2 by Railway FC (RFC) in a CFL Premier Division match at the Salt Lake Stadium.

While B. Beikhokhei and Srecko Mitrovich were on the mark for East Bengal, Samrat Roychowdhury and K Hembram scored for Railway FC.

True that it was not the red and gold brigade’s first XI, which took the field, but against Railway FC, even the reserves of an I-League team were expected to perform better. But then the quality of the bench is so poor that even Railway FC did not have any problem in snatching a point.

For new coach Phillippe de Ridder, it’s testing time. The Belgian appeared to be at sea trying to select players to suit different positions. On Wednesday De Ridder tried two different formations within the first 30 minutes!

Starting with 3-5-2, he soon switched to the more conventional 4-4-2 and again went back to the earlier formation after the induction the impressive Budiram Tudu upfront. Talking about players, Harmanjot Singh Khabra, who usually operates as a left half, donned the striker’s role (though briefly) while Gautam Kujur, an attacking midfielder was playing as a right-back.

But the introduction of young Budiram, in the 23rd minute, seemed to do wonders for East Bengal as the nippy striker ran havoc in the rival defence.

Seven minutes later, Budiram tore through the Railway defence but his shot was parried by goalkeeper Rakesh Prasad. Beikhokhei, lurking in the box, received the rebound and placed it past Prasad for East Bengal’s first goal.

Railway FC restored parity in the 64th minute when Samrat Roychowdhury converted a spot kick.

East Bengal sneaked into the lead in the 85th minute when Australian Mitrovic outjumped the Railway FC defenders to head in a Mehtab Hossain freekick.

When the day seemed won and the handful of East Bengal supporters present were leaving their seats with content, misfortune struck.

In the 92 nd minute, Railway FC’s Hembram, latching on to a through, outpaced Uga Okpara and Wasim Firoz and slotted it past an approaching Avijit Ghosh.

Teams

East Bengal: Avijit Ghosh, Abhijit Sarkar (Budiram Tudu, 23rd), Uga Okpara, Gautam Kujur, Wasim Feroz, Srecko Mitrovic, Mehtab Hossain, B. Beikhokhei, Mumtaz Akhtar (Riston Rodrigues, 55th), Harmanjot Singh Khabra, Abel Hammond

Railway FC: Rakesh Prasad, Sundar Mandi, Avijit Dutta, Bapi Saha, Bijoy Basfore (Subhas Banerjee, 40th), Munna Mallick, S. Roychowdhury, Santosh Oraon (Sandeep Karmakar, 88th), Dipanjan Das (Dipankar Das, 78th), K. Hembram, Mithun Dey

Referee: Biplab Poddar

MoM: K Hembram