East Bengal virtually assured themselves of the National Football League title after scoring a 2-0 victory over Tollygunge Agragami in a 17th round match of the league at the Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata on Saturday.
Following today's victory, the 2000-01 champions have 43 points from 17 matches while Tollygunge have 22 from that many games.
With six more points needed from five outings, East Bengal, who are undefeated in the league, can certainly hope to finish on top.
The red and gold brigade won the match riding on the brilliance of Brazilian medio Douglas, who scored in the 22nd minute of the second-half and then set up Kuluthangan a minute from the end.
Earlier, East Bengal broke into attack right from the word go. Venkatesh missed from a one-on-one situation with Tollygunge goalkeeper Arindam in the fourth minute. That was followed by Gilmer making a mess of a sitter in the 18th minute.
Finally East Bengal broke the deadlock in the 22 minute of the second-half when Douglas headed home a Surya Sekhar free-kick.
In between, Tolly's Mehtab Hossain and Uttam missed a couple of chances worth mentioning. While the former's attempt went out, hitting the cross piece, the latter messed up inside the box.
East Bengal got the second goal off a faulty clearance from Isiaka. Douglas pounced on the opportuinity and set up Kuluthangan, who does not miss many from close.
While East Bengal's midfield of Malswama, Chandan and Venkatesh flourished, Tollygunge's Ashim and Moses failed to come up with anything of note. Srikanta Dutta was replaced by Uttam but he too failed to bring about any notable change in the midfield.