East Bengal’s Dipankar Roy attempts a header during the match versus Eastern Railway at Howrah Stadium on Wednesday

Calcutta: About 5000 made it inside the Howrah Stadium to watch East Bengal take on Eastern Railway in Wednesday’s Super Division tie. Nearly a 1000 waited outside, as tickets were sold out.

After 90 minutes of action plus a generous five minutes of added-on time, those denied entry must have thought they were the more fortunate ones for being spared the drudgery of the goalless draw — the glamour team’s second draw in succession.

There were just two — Louis Aniweta and Syed Rahim Nabi — from the 11 who had started against Mohun Bagan in the previous match. Three more players were used who played that match partially.

There was no Bhaichung Bhutia, Douglas da Silva, Alvito D’Cunha or Sasthi Duley in the 18, which also missed the two frontline goalkeepers — Sangram Mukherjee and Rajat Ghosh Dastidar.

Even then, almost the entire match was played near the Eastern Railway penalty box. However, in terms of bench strength, something that set East Bengal apart last season, there is cause for concern.

The Eastern Railway ploy was age-old — crowd the own half with just a lone striker to occasionally pressurise the opponent defenders. Bhowmick probably knew what his rival team would do, but still failed to come up with a plan to counter it.

And though it was difficult to single out anyone for praise from the densely populated Eastern Railway midfield and defence, goalkeeper Tapan Karmakar stood out for a reflex save to deny Nabi and a few other brave charges which thwarted a few more moves.

East Bengal found it difficult to run through the middle and on the only occasion they found a way in, Climax Lawrence’s attempt off Shylo Malsawmtluanga’s pass was ruled off-side.

East Bengal resorted to aerial balls towards the end with defender Aniweta moving up, but the Eastern Railway defence rose to the challenge. They didn’t shy away from being physical either and this made things difficult for Nabi, who was wayward while heading.

The best chance came Nabi’s way in the 38th minute when he connected an acrobatic volley from a difficult angle off a Malsawmtluanga cross, only to see Karmakar showing amazing reflexes and effect a sharp save.

Before that, a back-pass from Bhola Prasad could have turned fatal for East Bengal in the 14th minute, but Farid Ali Molla wasted the chance by driving the ball wide of the mark.

TEAMS

East Bengal: Subhashish Roy Chowdhury; Madhab Das, Sandip Das, Louis Aniweta; Surya Bikash Chakraborty, Sujoy Dutta (Climax Lawrence, 40), Tushar Rakshit (Nitin Pradhan, 75), Shylo Malsawmtluanga, Bhola Prasad (Bijen Singh, 50); Dipankar Roy, Syed Rahim Nabi.

Eastern Railway: Tapan Karmakar; Goutam Debnath, Shantanu Bit, Nilanjan Guha, Sanjib Dutta Bhowmick; Dibyendu Panja (Archisman Biswas, 79), Prasanta Chakraborty (Samrat Roy Chowdhury, 90), Bapan Bera, Saikat Mondal, Ali Reja; Farid Ali Molla.

Referee: Joao Perera.