Draw draw E Bengal

Mohun Bagan, who lead the table with 29 points from 15 matches, look favourites to clinch the title as they are five points ahead of Air-India and East Bengal.

Dempo, who need full points to avoid relegation, started on a promising note but faded as the match progressed. They lacked urgency in attack especially in the second half as their medios gave too many back passes, helping the rival team to fall back whenever they lost the ball in possession.

Dempo could have surged ahead in eighth minute but Marcelo Antonio, who got the ball from a false pass from defender Debashis Paul Chaudhury, failed to direct his shot into the goal from the top of the box.

EastBengal slowly found their rhythm midway into the first half and had two good chances to score.

First in the 26th minute, a combined move between Felix, Renedy Singh and Shamshy Raja saw the latter’s weak shot go for a corner after hitting a defender. Four minutes later, mid-fielder Dulal Biswas, who moved up on the right, sent a cross to Felix, which saw Felix heading straight to keeper Ansari.

Ansari, who won the Man of the Match award, playing after a gap of six matches, bought off two fine saves two minutes before the interval to deny East Bengal a lead.

In the 43rd minute, he collected the ball off Shamshy Raja’s header and later leaped high to bring off a spectacular save off Samuel Omollo’s 25 yard shot.

After the change of ends, East Bengal made a good move in the 49th minute. Tushar Rakshit, who worked hard alongwith Renedy Singh in the middle, passed the ball to striker Felix into the box.

Felix, beating defender Christopher, shot wide off the mark with only ‘keeper Ansari to beat under thebar.

Dempo got more of the ball in possession and lacked urgency in their attack. They failed to penetrate the rival defence.