ISL 7: East Bengal Lose Third Straight Tie; Referee In The Eye Of The Storm

Fatorda: NorthEast United FC piled further misery on SC East Bengal after winning 2-0 in their Hero Indian Super League Season 7 encounter at the Tilak Maidan on Saturday.

Surchandra Singh’s (33’) own goal and an injury-time strike from Rochharzela (90’) helped the Highlanders stay unbeaten and climb to the second spot in the league table.

East Bengal are yet to score in the league and have already conceded seven goals. SCEB will be disappointed that a good display did not lead to points, with a couple of key refereeing decisions unfortunately going against them.

With more ball possession (57 per cent), East Bengal played a better brand of football than the last two outings against ATK Mohun Bagan and Mumbai City FC. However, their enthusiasm was dampened by referee Santhosh Kumar’s few on-field decisions.

Particularly, Referee Kumar’s three decisions — two went against East Bengal and one against NEUFC — raised questions about the quality of match officials in the league. Television experts were clearly of the opinion that it was Kumar who marred the contest with “blatant errors”.