Syed Rahim Nabi (right) with Bernard Pires who scored East Bengal’s second goal on Tuesday. Picture by Gautam Bose

Calcutta: East Bengal took full advantage of an early suicidal goal to beat Tollygunge Agragami 3-1 in the Premier Division at the Salt Lake Stadium on Tuesday. The red-and-gold brigade, however, hardly looked enterprising during 90 minutes on a rain-soaked afternoon.

After Manoj Das conceded a goal in the third minute in an attempt to clear a Syed Rahim Nabi cross, Bernard Pires increased the scoreline in the 19th minute. Tollygunge’s Prashanta Chakraborty pulled one back in the closing stages of the first half, taking full advantage of a lacklustre East Bengal defence. Substitute R.C. Prakash made it 3-1 a minute before close.

East Bengal now have 22 points from 10 games while Tollygunge have seven from as many matches.

Subhas Bhowmick’s experimentation with the team continued. Nabi was tried out in the striking zone again along with Alvito D’Cunha. But the Goan player always fell back in the midfield leaving East Bengal with a man short upfront. The lack of striking ability showed in the forwards’ poor shooting quality, let alone any game plan.

The propensity of the side backs to use the wings paid dividends in the first half. All that, however, vanished in the second session as East Bengal made a hash of their plans, and only a few futile attempts to break the rival zone were noticing with some attacks down the middle.

Nabi looked like a man struggling for ideas after having served at all positions. In the process, he seems to have forgotten the art of scoring goals. On Tuesday, he failed to push the ball into an almost empty net on two occasions. And, then, towards the closing stages his shot struck the crosspiece.

The only silver lining for East Bengal on this day was Debjit Ghosh and Alvito. The hard work the duo shouldered put to the shade some insipid display by the rest.

East Bengal’s second goal came through an organised move. Having got the ball from Debjit, Jatin Bisht fed it for Bernard to nod in on the second attempt.

Another chance went amiss in the 33rd minute when Bisht’s header was fisted away by the goalie. As the ball landed near the goalline, Manoj made a timely clearance to avert further damage.

The credit for Tollygunge’s goal should go to Prashanta. Having got the ball in the clear, he kept a cool head to put the ball past an advancing Abhra Mondal.

Prakash’s goal was also similar in nature, the striker lobbing it over an onrushing Pralay Dutta.

East Bengal porous deep defence showed in the match as Tollygunge with their limited ammunition in hand managed to break free on a few occasions.

The two stoppers were often caught standing in the same line making the task of their opponents that bit easier. With Tollygunge reducing the margin towards the closing stages of the first half, Bhowmick did not risk his side-backs to go on the overlap in the second session.

TEAMS

East Bengal: Abhra Mondal, Surya Bikash Chakraborty, Deb Kumar Sasmal, Debjit Ghosh, Soumik Dey, Jatin Bisht (K. Kulothungan, 61), Bernard Pires (Covan Lawrence, 45), Shylo Malsawmtluanga, Syed Rahim Nabi, Alvito D’Cunha (R.C. Prakash, 72), Arun Malhotra.

Tollygunge Agragami: Pralay Dutta, Manoj Das, Nayan Dey, Mahesh Sarkar, Dibakar Roy, Sheikh Azim, Prashanta Chakraborty, Ajay Saha (Srikanta Das, 45; Sudip Banik, 75), Surajit Chakraborty, Abdul Rauf Khan (Tarak Basu, 64), Ayan Chowdhury.

Referee: Dhanapati Roy

Okoro arrival

Mike Okoro may arrive in the city to play for East Bengal on Monday. His International Transfer Certificate has already reached the AIFF office.