East Bengal recovered from its derby defeat on the weekend in emphatic fashion, walloping HASC 8-1 at the Football Stadium here on Wednesday.
Australian striker Tolgay Ozbey was in murderous touch on his return from suspension, firing four second-half goals against an obliging defence. Centre-half Uga Okpara helped himself to two goals while Robin Singh and Baljit Sahni also made the scoresheet.
The home side was 3-1 down at the interval, but things descended into a shambles thereafter as an untroubled Ozbey ran riot. The opening goal arrived in the eighth minute, and in ludicrous circumstances. Femi Adeola's back-pass may have hurried goalkeeper Amar Deb a little, but the latter dwelt too long with the ball in the area. The attempted clearance simply went in off the onrushing Robin Singh. HASC changed shape from the weekend, manager M. Muralidharan opting for a five-man midfield.
Jagaba Hamza, not the most assured of ball-players even in his preferred position up front, started on the right flank, labouring through the game early on. But it was him that helped the airmen draw level. Brought down in the box by left-back Robert Lathlamuana on 16 minutes, Hamza converted the resulting penalty.
Joy short-lived
Any joy, however, was short-lived. Okpara struck twice in quick succession, charging goal-wards simply unchallenged on both occasions. The Nigerian latched onto an Ozbey flick-on the first time, turning and drilling past Deb, and 10 minutes later lashed Resangmi Vashum's cross from the left into the net first-time.
HASC underwent a reshuffle just before the half ended, Ramesh and Karthigeyan replacing Ajit Kumar Singh and Goutam Debnath as the side switched to a 4-1-3-2 set-up, but the move would only exacerbate its woes.
Ozbey plays havoc
An indefatigable Ozbey played havoc with a back-line that Femi had moved out of, sprinting into space behind with ease. He finished Orji Kechukwu's through-ball for his first goal, cut in from the right and arrowed a shot into the bottom corner for the second, and headed in Robin's cross for the fourth on 86 minutes. Substitute Sahni had scored with his first touch a little earlier.
The result enabled the visitor to climb into third place on the table, while HASC remained rooted to the bottom with only one point from seven games.
The result: HASC 1 (Hamza 16) lost to East Bengal 8 (Robin 8, Okpara 26, 36, Ozbey 49, 59, 71, 86, Baljit 75).
