Calcutta, March 16 :     EAST BENGAL 1 FC KOCHIN 1 Nineteen-year-old Kaustav Ghosh emerged out of anonymity by bringing East Bengal?s title-hopes in the Coca-Cola National League crashing to the ground. Waiting for Salgaocar to slip on the homestretch, the Calcutta giants were done in by a 1-1 draw against FC Kochin at the Salt Lake Stadium today, Ghosh?s stinging left-footer barely a minute before the final whistle neutralising the lead Raman Vijayan had given them in the 82nd minute. With Salgaocar taming Churchill Brothers with two second-half goals at the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium in another match today, the difference in points between East Bengal and the League leaders has opened up to four. Salgaocar will need to lose both their remaining matches if East Bengal are to overtake them (catching up on points may not be enough because the Goa outfit has a much superior goal-difference). It will need a small miracle for East Bengal to win the big League from here. It was, in fact, almost a miracle that East Bengal should actually take the lead today for it was their opponents who dominated proceedings for the better part of the match and came across most of the chances. The young Kochin side actually played the sort of soccer that made one wonder what they were doing at the bottom of the ?Super Six? table, with just two points from seven matches before today?s game. Coming into the game with a crowded midfield and a safety-first formation, Kochin soon settled down to some delightful soccer, especially in the attacking third where the mobility of their medios and the two front-runners had the East Bengal defence on tenterhooks. With Ranjan Dey sitting out after two bookings, the absence of a blocker in the East Bengal midfield was being felt on every Kochin raid. To add to their problems, Tushar Rakshit and Basudeb Mondal and it meant that the strikers were starved of passes. Emmanuel Opoku?s telling through from the midfield would have made a huge difference, but the Ghanian was sitting out with a shoulder injury. There were some early forays by the red-and-gold brigade but the lack of coordination between their strikers, Bhaichung Bhutia and Dipendu Biswas, was quickly evident. With right-back Suley Musah kept busy by Kochin?s very active left-flank, the strong runs and telling crosses from the Ghanaian were few and far between. A defensive slip-up did put him in a scoring position in the 13th minute, but he found the side net from 10 yards out and an acute angle. Five minutes later, Kochin?s Karunakar Raj missed a sitter after Najeeb had laid the ball on a platter for him. East Bengal?s best chance of the match came within a couple of minutes into the second session, and it was an irony that Bhaichung Bhutia, their best striker, should make a mess of it. Tushar?s long pass saw Mahesh Gawali freeze in anticipation of the whistle for off-side. In fact, even Bhaichung turned to look at assistant referee Ravishankar before he darted into a one-to-one situation with the goalkeeper. However, as the goalie rushed out, Bhaichung missed the target under pressure. The very next minute, Noel Wilson neutarlised a grave threat to the Kochin goal by blocking Basudeb?s cross. A couple of minutes later, Bhaichung put the ball into the goal from a fierce Musah drive but he was ruled off-side. The coast-to-coast action brought both goals under threats over the next few minutes before a flurry of substitutions saw Bhaichung off the pitch too. It wasn?t a very popular move, even though Bhaichung did very little of note today. As the desperation on the terraces and in the East Bengal game crept in, Manoranjan?s men produced a goal out of nowhere. Raman Vijayan, Bhaichung?s 62nd minute replacement, received the ball in midfield and his turf-hugging 25-yard shot was more a hopeful attempt than anything else, till goalkeeper Akhtar let it pass and the placement proved just right. With less than 10 minutes remaining and a win so important for East Bengal, it was baffling why they did not down shutters. Noah Rozario, after combining with Nitin Pradhan, set Kaustav Ghosh free on the left and the 19-year-old lad from Siliguri made no mistake with his left-footer to bulge the net and send East Bengal title-hopes on a tailspin. TEAMS EAST BENGAL: Kalyan Chowbey; Suley Musah, Jackson, Franky Barreto, Ratan Singh; Carlton Chapman, Basudeb Mondal, Tushar Rakshit (Bijen Singh 59th), Rennedy Singh (Saroj Das 72nd); Bhaichung Bhutia (Raman Vijayan 62nd), Dipendu Biswas. FC KOCHIN: Naseem Akhtar; Prabhjyot Singh, A.S. Firoz, Mahesh Gawali, K.V. Dhanesh; Roque Barreto, Noel Wilson (Noah Rozario 85th), K. Naushad, Mir Farooq Hyder; Karunakar Raj (Nitin Pradhan 65th), M. Najeeb (Kaustav Ghosh 76th). Referee: Inayatullah Khan (Karnataka).