Syed Rahim Nabi exults after scoring the matchwinner as teammate Gauranga Dutta (left) congratulates him at the East Bengal ground on Friday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: Early on Friday morning, a call on Subhas Bhowmick’s cellphone took him by surprise. It was Syed Rahim Nabi, pleading that he’s reached the city and intends to play against Tollygunge Agragami. The East Bengal coach, impressed by the player’s attitude, gave him assurance, hinting that he might have to play as a forward.

A few hours later, the bubbling energy in Nabi, who missed out on the Indian squad for the Fiji trip because of a passport fiasco and landed at Howrah station after an almost 30-hour train journey (from Bangalore and then Chennai), transformed the face of East Bengal from listlessness to the winning direction.

Nabi’s double in East Bengal’s 2-1 win ? after a goalless draw with Ever-Ready ? in the Premier Division of the Calcutta Football League, also saw the home team reverting to wearing the old red-and-gold jersey from a predominantly red one, and the coach returning to the bench from the stands. It is, though, accepted that superstition had a definite play in changing the colour and eventually the countenance of the team.

Nabi, who replaced Jayanta Sen in the first-half, first met a right-wing Jatin Bist free-kick with a perfectly-timed header to put his team into the 71st-minute lead. Within four minutes came the equaliser, almost in similar fashion.

East Bengal goalkeeper Nasim Akhtar saved a Tarak Bose shot for a corner. The second-half Tollygunge substitute took the resultant flag-kick and Sheikh Azim rose to the occasion with a powerful header as the ball went in after hitting the inside post.

As time wore on, impatience influenced the home team’s display ? a number of shots from distance was tried in vain, while there was hardly any defence-piercing through on offer. But Nabi had other ideas on mind.

With two minutes to go, he claimed a loose ball, covered well two rival players and taking another in his stride, sent in a half-volley that went past the goalkeeper Sambhu Mistry through the near post.

Nabi could have easily completed the hattrick, had he not failed to get to the ball in time, at least twice during the injury time.

Teams

East Bengal: Nasim Akhtar; Saumik Dey, Gurpreet Singh, Covan Lawrence, Debjit Ghosh, Jayanta Sen (Syed Rahim Nabi 26), R.C. Prakash, Chandan Das (Tushar Rakshit 46), Sasthi Duley, Dipankar Roy (Gauranga Dutta 64), Jatin Bist.

Tollygunge Agragami: Sambhu Mistry; Dibakar Roy, Manoj Das, Sheikh Azim, Mahesh Sarkar, Shovan Das, Nilavo Chakraborty, Bhola Prasad (Trijit Das 73), Surajit Chakraborty (Tarak Bose 65), Mithun Naha, Abdul Rauf.

Referee: Debashish Mishra.