Kingfisher East Bengal rode on Penn Orgi's early second-half goal and a late Tolgay Ozbey penalty to defeat host Chirag United Kerala 2-0 in the 11th round of the I-League football at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Friday night.
The first goal, which came six minutes after resumption, was the work of a three-man move involving Ozbey, Reijanmi Vashum and Orgi.
The move which began from the right left the Chirag defence in a tizzy. Before it could recover, Orgi finished the job smartly with a soft tap.
The second goal came in the third minute of injury time when the Chirag goalkeeper Sharath brought down striker Ozbey as he rushed in for what appeared to be a sure goal. The Australian converted the penalty without much fuss.
Evenly matched
Except for a brief while early in the second session when East Bengal dominated play, the teams were evenly matched.
Chirag was coming here after a victory in its last game at Thiruvananthapuram and that showed in its spirited play.
The crowd turnout for the match, Kochi's first I-League tie in nearly six years, was poor but the action kept the nearly 4000 who turned up on the seat edge.
There were chances aplenty but Anilkumar was unlucky thrice in the second session. His first shot hit the bar and then, the East Bengal goalkeeper Sandeep Nandy pushed one to safety and a little later another went wide.
Tolgay also missed a few chances before the penalty, once hitting the post and shooting wide a couple of times.
There was a flurry of moves early in the first half. The host's Sharath looked shaky as Baljit Saini's header rebounded off the goalkeeper in the sixth minute. Ozbey pounced on the chance but defender Issac Boakye came to Chirag's rescue.
Chirag's C.K. Vineeth gave a good account of himself on the right, keeping Nigerian striker David Sunday busy. Sunday almost gave Chirag the lead with a nice header, off a Vineeth feed, but it went wide.
East Bengal now moves to second spot with 23 points from 11 games while Chirag stays 12th with eight points.
