I-League: Memories of previous final days

2010-11

June 1 2011

HAL survived by the finest of margins

The last full round of fixtures bizarrely wasn’t the season finale for some teams as they had a game in hand left to be played. In that last full round though the title was decided with Salgaocar being crowned champions while ONGC were relegated following a 2-2 draw with Mumbai FC. ONGC had actually finished level on points with JCT and Air India but the other two were placed above them in the table based on results among those three teams. But JCT were not safe yet as a fourth team was in the relegation battle and that was Bangalore’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). JCT had finished their campaign with a 2-0 defeat away to Salgaocar but they needed HAL to drop points in the last day of the season against Dempo.

The odds were stacked against HAL as mighty Dempo had home advantage and two days ago thumped Air India 14-0. But despite trailing at the break, HAL showed great character to fight back and win 4-2 with Xavier Vijaykumar bagging a second-half brace. The bottom four were level on points but Air India and HAL survived as the two were placed above JCT and ONGC in the mini head-to-head table involving the four clubs. JCT also eventually got disbanded. That defeat cost Dempo the runners-up spot, which was taken by East Bengal following their 2-1 win over United SC on the same day. With Salgaocar winning the Federation Cup later that year, East Bengal actually qualified for the AFC Cup thanks to their second-place finish.

2011-12

There was no drama or excitement in the final day as Dempo had already sealed their record-fifth title while Chirag United Kerala and HAL were relegated with two rounds to spare.

2012-13

Another low-key final day of the campaign as Churchill Brothers were already crowned champions while the relegation of Air India and United Sikkim were also confirmed earlier in the campaign.