East Bengal 4-3 United Kerala (April 16 2012)
This was East Bengal’s second season under Trevor Morgan and the red-and-gold brigade needed a win to maintain their I-League title challenge. Viva Kerala, called Chirag United Kerala in this campaign, were fighting to stay up in the league. East Bengal had won their previous two I-League fixtures but were in action in the AFC Cup also so had to endure a lot of travelling. But they were still expected to win and Penn Orji put them in front. Tolgay Ozbey soon doubled their advantage as the Kolkata giants looked on course for a vital victory. But much to the surprise of the thousands at the Salt Lake Stadium, United Kerala’s Nigerian forward David Sunday struck a quick-fire double to bring the southern India club back in the game. Sunday completed the turnaround by making it 3-2 just after the halftime break as East Bengal’s title hopes look to be ending prematurely. However Tolgay soon got his second to make it 3-3 and Robin Singh finally settled the end-to-end contest by scoring the fourth. Despite the win, East Bengal finished runners-up while United Kerala were relegated after losing two of their final three fixtures.