Goals from Penn Orji and Tolgay Ozbey sealed the victory for the home side after Clifford Miranda had given his team the lead.
The defeat leaves the gap at the top being down to a point with Churchill Brothers having 20 points in their kitty. East Bengal are now level on points with their arch rivals Mohun Bagan on 19 points.
East Bengal started with Baljit Sahni on bench as coach Trevor Morgan preferred to hand S.Doungel a start alongside Tolgay Ozbey. Dempo SC decided to rest Climax Lawrence but Mahesh Gawli, Clifford Miranda, Anthony Pereira, Samir Naik and Subhasish Chowdhury returned to the line-up.
It was cagey start to the proceedings as neither side looked to commit too many men forward.
The opening goal came in the 11th minute as Clifford Miranda tapped in with Saunik Dey failing to challenge the Dempo winger after Godwin Franco foxed Mehtab Hussain to find his team-mate inside the box.
Thereafter East Bengal woke up and began launching several attacks with Penn Orji at the centre of it all. He released Vashum in space and the winger sent a ball across the face of goal but Ozbey decided to check his run and the chance was wasted.
Saumik Dey sent in a teasing cross from the left which saw Doungel’s header go straight towards the Dempo custodian who fumbled and gave away a corner.
Mehtab was guilty of wasting as many as three corner-kicks as all of them were cleared by the first man.
The equaliser came around the half hour mark as Naoba Singh’s fluffed shot saw Gawli’s poor clearance fall for Ozbey who headed it for Orji to score from six yards distance.
Two minutes later, Mehtab finally got it right from the flag-kick as Orji flicked it for Ozbey whose header was cleared off the line by Naik.
Dempo’s midfield duo of Peter Carvalho and Godwin Franco were poor as they were never really in the game. East Bengal was gifted the possession at every opportunity and they made them pay for it.
Orji released Ozbey, who did well to get away from his marker Naik, and nor did Gawli’s tackle or the onrushing Subhasish could stop the Australian to slot the home to place the ball into an empty net.
After the break, Dempo players kept giving away possession cheaply with Pereira, Carvalho and Franco being the guilty party.
The space between the midfield and the strikers was way too much which allowed East Bengal to win the balls.
Orji dictated the proceedings as Dempo only looked on in amazement and would thank their stars that more goals weren’t scored.
The Nigerian cut past three Dempo defenders, which included veterans like Gawli, to see his shot come off Naik in the 89th minute. He also appealed for a penalty when it was Cresson Antao’s thigh which saved the Goan side.
Dempo need to get things back on track as soon as possible and the match at home against Air India offers just that. East Bengal will be buoyed with their performance especially Orji, who was by far the man of the match.
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