After three defeats in a row, East Bengal finally managed to earn their first point of the Indian Super League season seven with a tenacious goalless draw against Jamshedpur FC at the Tilak Maidan Stadium, Vasco on Thursday.
Although it was only a draw, the result would feel like a win for the Kolkata outfit who played a majority of the game with ten men after Eugeneson Lyngdoh was sent off in the 25th minute.
Jamshedpur hit the woodwork on a couple of occasions and paid the price for not capitalising on their advantage and they also finished the game with ten men after Laldinliana Renthlei picked up a second yellow in injury time.
From the start of the game, it was evident that Jamshedpur FC were the sharper side as they were attacking with purpose while East Bengal were struggling to see much of the ball.
Young attacker Aniket Jadhav nearly put Jamshedpur ahead early on but ended up blazing the shot over the bar when he was through on goal.
At the other end, veteran striker Jeje Lalpekhlua was doing an admirable job leading the line for East Bengal as he was linking up the attack well.
The game was finely poised when East Bengal suffered a setback in the 25th minute when Eugeneson Lyngdoh got his marching orders for a second yellow card.
Eugeneson was making his first start since February 2019 and it was another setback for both the player and Robbie Fowler's side.
Jamshedpur came agonisingly close as half-time was approaching when defender Stephen Eze's thumping header hit the crossbar. Nerijus Valskis also came close from a volley as Jamshedpur kept pushing for the opening goal.
For East Bengal, the likes of Anthony Pilkington and Matti Steinmann offered some creativity but they hardly threatened Jamshedpur keeper TP Rehenesh in the first half which ended goalless.
In the second half, East Bengal sat a little deeper knowing well that even a point from this position was going to be a good result for them.
Jamshedpur kept putting in crosses into the box but Valskis was kept on a good watch by the likes of Mohammed Irshad and Scott Neville.
However, they had to cope with another setback as Fowler was forced into a substitution when his goalkeeper Sankar Roy got injured and had to be replaced by Debjit Majumder.
They got lucky when a thumping shot from outside the box by Alexandre Lima hit the crossbar and went out.
East Bengal showed incredible resilience as they managed to frustrate Jamshedpur who were not able to convert their domination into goals.
On a few occasions, they even dared to foray forward thanks to Pilkington and Jacques Maghoma as they managed to cope with their numerical disadvantage.
East Bengal showed great determination to eke out a draw from trying circumstances and proved their coach right. Robbie Fowler had said that the results will start to come soon and they managed to do that in the most testing circumstances.