East Bengal held to goalless draw by Salgaocar

Title aspirants East Bengal's hopes of consolidating their position atop the points table received a big blow when they were held to a goalless draw by a spirited Salgaocar in the National Football League in Calcutta on Saturday.

Despite playing at home, East Bengal had themselves to blame for not securing full points as they simply failed to play upto their awesome reputation against defensive opponents.

The home team, surprisingly playing much below potential, and never really looked like scoring in the 90 minutes of play which seldom rose to great heights to the dismay of East Bengal supporters at the Salt Lake Stadium.

Salgaocar, who suffered a stunning solitary goal defeat against Tollygunge Aggragami in their last match, did reasonably well to notch up a point by drawing the game against their formidable opponents.

With this draw, East Bengal have secured 31 points from 14 outings while Salgaocar have 20 points from as many matches.

With both their strikers struggling to find form, the East Bengal attacks lacked sting while the midfielders and defenders also seemed to lack focus.

Salgaocar, who had lost their last five matches, seemed to be more determined and tightened their defence to counter the East Bengal forwards.

In another match, local outfit, Indian Telephone Industries Limited, stunned title contender FC Kochin 3-1 in Bangalore.

Naushad slammed two superb goals in the 44th and 59th minutes as the telephonemen, placed at the third spot from the bottom of the table, notched an impressive win.

Incidentally, F C Kochin were in the second spot going into the encounter.

George Ekeh scored first for ITI in the 17th minute and Naushad made it 2-0, a minute before the first half.

The visitors reduced the margin through Joe Paul Ancheri in the 58th minute. A minute later, Naushad netted his second goal to settle the issue