MUMBAI, November 22: Emeka Achilefu's hat-trick helped JCT Mills, Phagwara, beat East Bengal, Calcutta, 3-2 (half-time 3-1) and assure the National League champions top spot in the Bristol Rovers Cup football tournament's Group Y quarter-final league at the Cooperage tonight.The Nigerian striker destroyed East Bengal with goals in the 21st, 32nd and 42nd minute but second-half efforts by the Calcutta side, after Somatai Saiza scored his second goal of the match on the hour, caused JCT some anxiety.The Punjab millmen were denied a resounding victory by some indifferent finishing after striker Jaspreet Singh's effervescent display exploited weakness in the Calcutta side's defence on the left flank.The result sets up a crunch encounter on Monday between East Bengal and Salgaocar which the Calcutta side must win for a second semi-final spot.JCT piled pressure on a side beleaguered from the loss of defensive bulwark, Kenya national captain Samuel Omollo, who visited hospital with a head injury after a nasty collision with Emeka even before the scoring began.Emeka struck when East Bengal were a man short as Omollo writhed in pain over the sideline.JCT looked imposing from the outset and their domination restricted East Bengal to just three clear chances, two of which bore fruit. Seriki Abdul Latif, Emeka's Nigerian colleague, went close on three occasions, rocking the post once before the match was 20 minutes old.JCT's mid-field stood out yet again and Harjinder Singh found overlapping defender Manjinder, who crossed for Emeka to score his first goal with a header.Emeka's over-exuberant celebrations brought him a yellow card and only a show of restraint by referee HG Hegde kept the marauding African on the pitch after an encore following his second goal.With an error-prone goalkeeper Kalyan Chaubey anticipating off-side, Emeka placed Tarsem Lal's through ball into an open goal to make it 2-0.The little East Bengal striker Saiza brought the game alive, scoring with an angular shot after good work by the busy Sarvanan, who got the better of Nigerean Musa Ali in the 35th minute.Predictably, East Bengal manager Swapan Ball replaced Chaubey in goal with Raj Narayan Mukherjee, but the substitute himself went through a mortifying moment as Emeka completed his hat-trick with an awesome header that went beneath the custodian's body. Jaspreet, yet again leaving Dutta for dead with a burst of pace, crossed perfectly for Emeka to score with a spectacular lunge forward. Celebrations were muted this time.With play deteriorating as JCT's Africans and Jaspreet tired East Bengal brought one back as Saiza punished a floundering defence. The goal came quite casually from a free-kick, some distance away by Marcello Araujo. The Brazilian displaying touch and vision that made up for relative languidness, sent a floater into the area where Sarvanan, agile and committed, found a loosely-marked Saiza. The striker slotted home past Arvind Kumar and a confused set of JCT defenders.
