East Bengal widen lead at the top

National coach Sukhwinder Singh had an unfulfilled wish before handing over the JCT team entirely to assistants Inder Singh and Parminder Singh. He was desperate for Jagatjit Cotton Textile Mills's first win before joining the Pre-World Cup camp in Bangalore.

On his last visit to Bombay, his eyes and choked voice conveyed it all.

"We are not playing badly, it is just that we have been losing matches on set-pieces," Sukhwinder had said.

With the camp scheduled to start on Sunday, March 25, Sukhwinder leaves Ludhiana a happy man having seen his side defeat the country's, arguably, costliest outfit, Mahindra United by a solitary goal margin in the 15th round matches of the National Football League that were completed last week.

The match-winner came from Hardip Singh Gill, who scored his fourth goal of the NFL. In fact, he has scored 50 per cent of JCT's goals.

The champions of the inaugural year also entered double figures with this victory (10 points) and also corrected the dubious distinction of being the only side not to win any matches.

If JCT reached a zenith here, the jeepmen scraped the nadir. Mahindra United, coached by the co-called 'lucky' coach Shabbir Ali, have simply been unable to keep up the momentum at the halfway mark when they defeated Salgaocar at home. In the second leg, Mahindra, who are yet to score a goal, have played four matches, lost three in a row now and have only one point from a drawn encounter against East Bengal.

Dire times certainly for Shabbir Ali and his men. They now return to the cocoons of a home match where again they cannot take things lightly as they run into Goan No. 3 side Vasco on All Fool's Day.

And Derrick Pereira's boys are quite capable of beating the best as they proved against FC Kochin, who lost their first match in the 14th round and then ended up losers for the first time at home against Vasco, who are on 23 points, the same as Salgaocar.

If there is one cause for worry for Vasco it is their minus goal difference. They played three lower-rated teams (ITI, JCT and SBT) but could not score at all as the ties ended in goalless draws. Even against Kochin, Awazbek Kashimov got a fortuitous goal in a packed Nehru stadium at Kochi.

Kochi's loss means that there is a slight aberration in their bid for the title, more so as league leaders East Bengal have now pulled away to a five-point lead after their revenge win over Indian Telephone Industries in Bangalore. This is the widest lead that the red and golden yellow brigade have held ever since they began occupying the top spot from the seventh round.

Manoranjan Bhattacharjee and his men are perhaps getting a bit cocky. For they took their opponents ITI, who came into the match with them with upset wins over Mahindra United and FC Kochin, a little lightly. They missed chances galore and Dipendu Biswas even sent a penalty wide. Some cause for concern this as there are only seven rounds remaining and the need of the hour is total concentration and focus.

Kochin simply cannot afford to relax. The back-to-back losses have pegged them back and now they have defending champions Mohun Bagan breathing down their neck. Kochin are on 29 while Mohun Bagan are one point behind. The two-time champions defeated Calcutta mates Tollygunge Aggragami in a home match, with R C Prakash netting his 10th goal.

Former champions Salgaocar arrested a downward slide which had them netting just one point from five previous matches to register their seventh victory overall and third in an 'away' tie. International Jules Alberto got the match-winner against Air-India, who like their Bombay mates Mahindra United have found no answer to their sinking fortunes.

Salgaocar are on 23 and ahead on goal difference compared to Vasco. And the airmen are on 14 and -4 goal difference, which is a healthier goal difference than Mahindra United's 14 and -9.

The most exciting match of the 15th round was played at Thiruvananthapuram between State Bank of Travancore and Churchill Bros. At half-time it was 1-1. Three more goals came after the break with the Goan champions coming out best at 3-2 and surviving a torrid final 10 minutes.

Francis 'Pocket' Silveira is beginning to play true to his reputation, as he has now not scored only in only one match of the second leg.

Best goal: Jules Alberto's solo for Salgaocar against Air-India in Bombay.

Best match: Churchill beating SBT 3-2, at Thiruvananthapuram

Disappointment: Mohun Bagan and East Bengal dominating but not getting more than one goal.

Results of the 15th round:
Mohun Bagan beat Tollygunge 1-0, at Calcutta
SBT lost to Churchill Bros. 2-3, at Thiruvananthapuram
East Bengal beat ITI 1-0, at Calcutta
FC Kochin lost to Vasco 0-1, at Kochi
JCT beat Mahindra United 1-0, at Ludhiana
Air-India lost to Salgaocar 0-1, at Bombay.

Schedule for 16th round:

March 26: Mohun Bagan vs Air-India at Calcutta
March 27: ITI vs Churchill Bros.
March 28: SBT vs Tollygunge Aggragami; FC Kochin vs Mahindra United; East Bengal vs. JCT.

The Vasco vs Salgaocar 16th round clash will be played on April 11 as the Nehru Stadium is engaged for the cricket match between India and Australia on April 6.