Kolkata Derby: East Bengal do the double over Mohun Bagan

Jobby Justin scored and set up another for Jaime Santos as the Red and Golds ensured Khalid Jamil remained winless in the derby as coach...

East Bengal did the league double over cross-town rivals Mohun Bagan for the first time in 15 years and a first in the I-League era as the Red and Golds ran out 2-0 winners at the Salt Lake Stadium on Sunday.

Jaime Santos (35') and Jobby Justin (75') scored in either half to hand East Bengal the ultimate bragging rights in the Kolkata derby.

Striker Henry Kisseka slotted into a makeshift central midfield role to compensate for Yuta Kinowaki s late retraction from the starting XI as the Japanese pulled up during warm-up. Meanwhile, Pintu Mahata made a return after being sidelined for nearly seven weeks.

Alejandro Menendez had to make an enforced change with Manoj Mohammad suspended. Kamalpreet Singh was ushered in at left-back with Lalramchullova man-marking the returning Sony Norde, in his first derby appearance since December 2017.

Starting off brilliantly with Jobby Justin sporting a new hairdo, failed to connect on the sweet spot from inside the box as early as in the seventh minute of the game. Bagan had half an answer within the first quarter of an hour as Eze Kingsley failed to tap into space from Norde's cross, worked out from a short corner.

This was followed by a contentious two-footed challenge from Shilton Paul on Justin after the goalkeeper failed to communicate with Abhishek Ambekar while clearing the ball inside the box. Referee CR Srikrishna turned a deaf ear to appeals from the East Bengal players.

Even Sony Norde was on the end of a controversial decision when Kamalpreet's mistimed challenge had the Haitian on all fours in the 24th minute and the referee did not point to the spot.

Two consecutive freekicks fell for Bagan but Norde could not deliver either to close the gap before the half hour mark.

The Red and Golds took advantage and with some aplomb. Kingsley failed to steer clear a long punt from Chullova near the touchline. An onrushing Justin snatched the ball away from the Nigerian and ran past Abhishek Ambekar to lay the ball for Santos.

The Spaniard then wrong-footed Gurjinder Kumar inside the box and with ease, slammed the ball past Shilton to break the deadlock. Bagan failed to pose any question for the rest of the half as East Bengal went in with the slender lead at the break.

Goalscorer Santos had an lucky escape six minutes after the change of ends as he appeared to have strangled Aser Dipanda inside his own box with the help of Johhny Acosta. However, the referee did not show any cards.

Mohun Bagan then had a goal disallowed in the 53rd minute with linesman Antony Abraham raising the flag for handball on Caldeira. Kingsley had headed onto the bar from a corner and the former Bengaluru man had headed it for Dipanda to finish but the ball grazed Caldeira's arm before it went into the net.

Khalid Jamil had no match for Menendez's tactical superirotiy as the fluidity in attack continued to flummox the Bagan defenders throughout.

The winner of the night came through a set-piece where Lalrindika Ralte's pinpoint left-footed corner kick was headed in by Justin, bringing up his eighth of the season.

Jamil had given up on all hopes of a comeback when he chose to bring in Tirthankar Sarkar for the last ten minutes, a player who had hardly any game time under his belt.

East Bengal kept their hopes in the title race alive as they closed the gap with league leaders Chennai City by five points, remaining fourth on the table with 25 points

Mohun Bagan, having played a game more were four points behind East Bengal and languished at the sixth spot.