(From left) Jayanta Sen, Alvito D’Cunha and Vincent Pires after East Bengal beat Eastern Railway on Tuesday to lift the Premier Division title. A Telegraph picture Match report, league table on Page 10

Calcutta: It was another red letter day for East Bengal. Their 31st Calcutta league title, that too, at home ground, made the fans ecstatic. Red and gold-coloured vermilion was sprayed all around the galleries, club lawn and tent. Slogans of ‘East Bengal zindabad’, ‘Alvito zindabad’ completed the picture of celebrations.

Golden boy Alvito D’Cunha, who had scored the winning goal but was sent off soon after was a happy man too. “This (scoring on Tuesday versus Eastern Railway) is the biggest achievement of my career,” he said while doing the victory lap.

Alvito admitted that he was under a bit of pressure as a draw would have made the team wait for the outcome of the Mohun Bagan-United SC match slated for Wednesday. “Yes, pressure was there… It will always be there in situations like these, but if you want to be the champions, you have to know how to take it and live with it,” he stated.

Alvito, Dipankar Roy, M. Suresh, Rajat Ghosh Dastidar and Brazilian coach Carlos Roberto Pereira lapped up every moment as the noise of drum-beats raised the decibel level to an almost unbearable level.

“We have proved that we are the best team in the league,” said a proud Pereira, who became the first foreign coach to win the Calcutta league title.

Though happy with the overall performance, Pereira admitted that Brazilian forward Marcio Fernandes had disappointed him and called for a replacement. “Some new foreigners will be coming very soon, including a Japanese striker… Hopefully, we won’t have any problem with scoring after that,” Pereira said.

“Alvito is a champion footballer, but needs to shed some weight. Once he does that, he will be an asset not only for East Bengal but also for the national squad,” Pereira remarked.

Alvito tried explaining what prompted him to behave in such irresponsible manner after the goal. “The goalie was wasting time for very long. When I was on the bench, I told Bibiano (Fernandes) that I will give it back to him if I score… I couldn’t check my emotions after scoring.”

Alvito tried to make peace with Eastern Railway custodian and after the match, shaking hands with Kalyan Lodh. He then took Lodh to the spot where he had elbowed him and said sorry.