By IANS
Margao : Sporting Clube de Goa notched their second win on the trot by beating Kolkata giants East Bengal 1-0 to steer clear of the relegation zone in the I-League football tournament at the Nehru Stadium here Saturday.
The home side put it across a completely disorganised and disinterested East Bengal to get out of the relegation zone for the first time since the start of the league.
Lawrence Adjei’s opportunistic strike in the 52nd minute was enough for Clifford Chukwuma’s men to collect full points as East Bengal carried their woeful form to an astonishing six matches.
The Kolkata giants, plagued by infighting and groupism, have not collected a single point from the last six games and now find themselves in the relegation zone.
Both teams were rarely at their best, but East Bengal, except for goalkeeper Subrata Paul, seemed to sleepwalk throughout the 90-minute duel.
East Bengal, Federation Cup champions, were never in the game, and most of their players seemed totally uninterested in the game.
East Bengal’s problems started as soon as the match kicked off. Ashim Biswas suffered an ankle injury in the fifth minute forcing Subrata Bhattacharya to make an early substitution.
That robbed East Bengal not only of a key attacking force but also a player capable of bringing the defence to its feet with one blockbusting surge.
Sporting surged ahead after the change of ends as Lawrence Adjei came up with a scrappy finish after Denzil Franco had returned Wilton Gomes’ free-kick with an impish header.
Nigerian striker Junior Elijah hit the post twice for Sporting Clube, and Lawrence went close on a couple of occasions. So Sporting Clube seemed worthy of only their second win in the competition.
For Sporting Clube, Denzil Franco worked predictably hard on the right flank as the home side employed a five-man midfield to stifle East Bengal’s supply line.
But equally predictably, it was largely left to Lawrence and Junior to test East Bengal’s suspect defence though the Kolkata team had Kenyan stopper-back Julius Owino making his debut.
East Bengal coach Bhattacharya must have been dismayed at his side’s inability to come up with any constructive move.
Had Alvito D’Cunha, Hardeep Saini or Mehrajuddin Wadoo showed a little bit of imagination and calmness in the middle, East Bengal could have at least levelled the score.