Congrats Bengal !!!
Denson Devadas did the star turn for Bengal with two brilliant goals to come back from behind to beat Punjab 2-1 in the final of the 64th senior National football championship for the Santosh Trophy at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Sunday.
Playing in front of a big holiday crowd, an injury-riddled Bengal fired up an inspired performance to regain the trophy after a gap of 11 years. This was the 30th occasion the host had registered its supremacy in the championship.
Bengal made up for the deficit in its attack by mobilising its midfield to apply pressure on Punjab. This meant one of its two central halves played a more assertive role to come in aid of its only striker Robin Singh. Bengal's plan was remarkably taken ahead by Devadas, who proved his versatility as an attacking midfielder.
Impressive
Devadas, pairing up with Jayanta Sen in the middle, impressed with his clever distribution to see Bengal attacking from both the flanks its through its wingers Snehasish Chakraborty and Gouranga Dutta.
Despite getting one of its injured strikers Tarif Ahmed to start, Bengal coach Shabbir Ali was soon convinced about the need for a fitter player and brought in midfielder Souvik Chakraborty to replace Tarif in the 36th minute.
Before he was replaced, Tarif had found his header coming off the upright in the 18th minute. The miss proved costly as Punjab came up against the tide to find the lead off a smart counter-attack. Balwant Singh, the team's most prolific scorer, added one more to his tally by neatly heading home a Rahul Kumar cross at the stroke of the half hour.
Bengal refused to crumble and tried to regroup for the equaliser. The host's efforts were realised in the injury-time when Devadas head-flicked a low corner from Snehasish Chakraborty to even the honours before the break.
Keeping the pressure on
Bengal mounted more pressure on Punjab, which somehow struggled to break out of its shell. With the usual flourish of its strikers Balwant and Balraj Singh missing, the Punjab attackers were kept at bay by a dogged Bengal defence.
While Robin found himself closely marked by the Punjab defenders, Devadas moved up once again to carry out his job as the surrogate attacker.
Devadas, who plays for Chirag United SC here, found the top angle of the Punjab goal in the 78th minute with a booming left-footer after had Robin set him up with a short pass which opened a corridor in the opposition's defence.
Punjab's veteran coach Jagir Singh tried out a series of changes to tidy the flagging attack but the visitor could not come up with the right moves to level the scoreline and push the match to extra-time.
-The Hindu
