Calcutta: Sunil Chetri fired Bengaluru FC (BFC) one point clear at the top of the Hero ISL table with an incredible strike that helped his team beat ATK, at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, on Sunday.

The narrow 1-0 victory yielded BFC significant three points, as all the top four teams have now played nine games. Courtesy this win, BFC have stitched up a hat-trick of wins, while ATK have picked up only a point from their last two matches.

BFC's first chance came in the fourth minute, but it took another 36 minutes for them to break the deadlock. Chetri intercepted the ball from Conor Thomas's pass, created a yard for himself, and unleashed a right-footer past Debjit Majumder to give BFC the lead in stunning style.

It was also the captain's fifth goal in ISL IV.

ATK started carving out chances only in the second half. Robbie Keane was about to score when he managed to find space past two markers and fired it towards goal, only to see Gurpreet Singh pull off a fine save. And just like it would happen throughout the game, the rebound was fired wide.

Keane was once again at the centre of the build-up when he found Rupert Nongrum in space. The cross from the midfielder reached Tom Thorpe, but his header went begging.

Keane produced another cross, but ATK simply couldn't convert. Minutes after the save from Gurpreet, Debjit had to be in action when he blocked Miku''s first-time drive.

Braulio Nogreba then had a couple of chances in quick succession in the dying minutes to score the insurance goal for BFC. First, he shot wide from a narrow angle and then was ready for a tap in before Jordi Montel made a last ditch and successful attempt at clearing the ball for a corner.

Earlier in the first half, Erik Paartalu and Edu Garcia almost created another goal early for BFC, while ATK's first real opportunity came when Gurpreet sharply kept out a chance created after Zequinha and Robin Singh had combined.

BFC could have then doubled the lead when Juanan headed a cross from Garcia that went on to hit the woodwork. Rahul Bheke's impending effort was then cleared off the line and ATK were lucky to get away.

BFC coach Albert Roca later praised Chetri for his performance. "Sunil is an outstanding player," Roca said.

"Till the time he scored the goal, he was not playing that well. But suddenly you see that he is a different type of player. He all of a sudden scored a goal like that. Its shows that he's different in this kind of business."