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Regular-article-logo Friday, 13 June 2025

EB BEAT TOLLY TO 2ND SPOT 

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Staff Reporter Published 09.09.01, 12:00 AM
Calcutta, Sept. 9 :    Calcutta, Sept. 9:  East Bengal 1Tollygunge0 Suley Musah marked his return to the Maidan with a goal which turned out to be the only one in today's Super Division match between East Bengal and Tollygunge Agragami. The 23rd minute strike helped East Bengal take second spot with 20 points after the completion of the first phase. Mohun Bagan finished way ahead with 27 and Tollygunge (19) were third. Bhratri Sangha (18) and Calcutta Port Trust (15) had booked the remaining Super Five slots earlier. The goal and a few chances apart, there was not much to take home for the die-hard East Bengal fans who gave the coach and players a piece of their mind after the match. Things could have turned worse, had Tollygunge been able to convert any of the chances they got in the dying minutes. Even for Tollygunge, things were unsavoury on the coach's front as Amal Dutta stuck to his guns and stayed away from the match. He feels insecure at the East Bengal ground, he had said yesterday. It wasn't received well by club officials who said a meeting will be called to discuss the issue. Coming back to football, the all-important goal came when Soumitra Chakraborty floated a measured cross from the left which found Musah near the far post. The burly medio-cum-defender shielded his marker and buried a strong header into the net. The home team could have increased the margin, but Tushar Rakshit in the 30th minute and Musah in the 65th, failed to beat the 'keeper Sandip Nandy from close range. Tollygunge couldn't do much in the first half but came back in the second with Sashthi Duley leading the way. The energetic medio tested the East Bengal rearguard with his speedy runs, body faints and dangerous passes. One of his free-kicks found Akeem Abolanle between goalkeeper Hemanta Dora and stopper-back Jackson Egygpong but the Nigerian couldn't take a shot. Another free-kick, in the 85th minute, saw Dora barely getting his fingertips to the ball and a rasping drive by Sandip Das off the rebound narrowly missed the mark. TEAMS EAST BENGAL: Hemanta Dora; Falguni Dutta, Jackson Egygpong, Dipak Mondal, Ratan Singh; Chandan Das, Suley Musah, Soumitra Chakraborty (Jiten Rai, 35), Tushar Rakshit (Swaroop Chatterjee, 56); Omolaja Olalekan (Dipendu Biswas, 77), Bijen Singh. TOLLYGUNGE AGRAGAMI: Sandip Nandy; Reazul Mustafa, Debkumar Sashmal, Partha Sarathi De, Biswanath Mondal, 45), Amitava Chanda; Mehtab Hossain (Prahlad Rawat, 76), Sandip Das, Khemtang Paite, Sashthi Duley; Moses Owira (Nazimul Haq, 45), Akeem Abolanle. Referee: Biswajit Bera. Barreto out with two bookings Mohun Bagan will look to seal their first Super Division title in four years with the Super Five championship leg beginning tomorrow. Bhratri Sangha are their rivals. Mohun Bagan can afford to drop four points in four matches and still win the title, as all they need is to maintain a three-point difference with the second-placed team. East Bengal, their closest rivals, are seven points adrift. However, Mohun Bagan have a problem. Jose Ramirez Barreto, the fulcrum of their strength, is out with two bookings. This means Basudeb Mondal, R.P. Singh and Abdulateef Seriki will get a chance to prove their mettle even without the Brazilian. Rishi Kapoor, Hussain Mustafi and Sumit Sengupta are unavailable with injuries but Rennedy Singh may return. Bhratri, on the other hand, have entered a crucial part of their campaign. They have to finish fourth - if Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Tollygunge keep the first three spots - to qualify for the National League second division. They are severely handicapped with double bookings to strikers Christian Okolonko and Abdul Khalique. However, they can draw courage from the fact that they scored first before losing 1-2 to Mohun Bagan in their previous meeting.    
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