NEW DELHI: Despite having a man advantage, SC East Bengal failed to find the winner as they ended up sharing the spoils with FC Goa after an entertaining 1-1 draw at the Fatorda Stadium on Friday.
The result means the Gaurs remain third with 21 points from 14 games and they stretched their unbeaten run to eight games. However, what will be concerning is this was their third draw on the trot and on all three occasions they have been far from impressive. The Kolkata giants remain one spot from bottom, with 13 points from 14 games.
Robbie Fowler's team were once again by far the better team but the former Liverpool striker should be upset that his team could not make the numerical advantage count and could not convert the solitary point into three. They were trailing after the first half from an Igor Angulo strike, but they turned up in the second half a completely different team.
The Red and Golds controlled proceedings and their dominance finally bore fruit in the 65th minute as skipper Danny Fox scored from a corner, the 11th time Goa have conceded from set pieces. Incidentally, the last time Fox scored he was part of the Southampton set-up against Arsenal back in 2012.
Young Harmanpreet Singh, who came on in place of Jeje Lalpekhlua, had two chances to secure victory but Dheeraj Singh made amends for his earlier error to thwart the striker. Edu Bedia was the man to be sent off but the refereeing was again under the scanner as Harish Kundu failed to spot quite a few penalty shouts while he did not exactly protect Bright Enobakhare from getting fouled constantly. The Nigerian was once again the best player on the pitch by a country mile.
"We were the only team to try and go for the win. Both times we played last year's league champions and both times we should have beaten them. The referee was once again poor and I don't know whether it is an Anti-British thing or an anti-East Bengal thing but I have lost count how many times we have been robbed," a furious Fowler said at the end of the game.
The match started in frantic fashion as Narayan Das won a penalty after 19 seconds but Anthony Pilkington failed to convert from the spot. Angulo then made the Kolkata team pay as he scored his 10th of the season and it turned out to be enough to claim one point.