East Bengal beat ONGC by a clear 5-0 margin; remain on top

East Bengal ransacked ONGC by a clear 5-0 margin at Salt Lake stadium Kolkata yesterday in the seventh round clash of I-League to remain top of the I-League ladder. Chiddi opened the scoring for the hosts in the 26^th minute, Penn (51’), Mannandep(66’), Lalrindika (78’) & Robin Singh (83’) all put their stings upon the visitors. Chiddi’s goal is the 500^th goal for East Bengal in I-League in 345 matches and East Bengal remain unbeaten in their last 31 outings under Morgan’s tenure.

East Bengal started with the same combination they used in their last few matches while the visitors had to make few changes in their first eleven due to the injury of key players. Subrata Bhattacharya (junior) introduced Rajib Bodo in attack.

Expectations were mounting in this match due to the performance of ONGC in the last two matches; they held Mohun Bagan in their home and beat mighty Dempo by a comprehensive 3-1 margin in their last two home matches. East Bengal had failed to overcome the barrier of ONGC since their last seven meetings, which made the situation wary for Morgan.

In the beginning few minutes of the first half it looked like ONGC were there to prove their giant killer image and the Red & Gold Brigade started their campaign in a bit of cautious mood.

East Bengal had to wait till 26^th minute to get their first goal when Chiddi scored following a header from Isfaq from the right side of the box. Eventually that became the 500^th goal for East Bengal in I-League. The visitors defended well during the rest of the time of the first half, trailing only 0-1.

East Bengal started the second half in innovative fashion, and got their second in the 51^st minute of the game courtesy Penn Orji following a header from Chiddi.

Just after that incident the central defender of ONGC, Sandeep Sangha got his marching orders firstly for ruthlessly tackling Manandeep and secondly for brawling with the referee. The sending off opened the floodgate for the hosts.

Manandeep scored the third for the homeside in the 66^th minute of the game. Morgan made few changes during the match and the substitutes came quite handy and put their names in the scoresheet also.

Substitute Lalrindika scored the fourth for East Bengal in the 78^th minute and another substitute Robin Singh also found the net at the death and made the scoreline 5-0 in their favour.

Currently East Bengal tops the table with 17 points from 7 matches while ONGC is in the relegation zone with only 5 points from 7 matches.