East Bengal failed to make the best of a penalty and were held by a stubborn Eastern Railway goalless in the IFA Premier Division Football League in Kolkata on Friday.
Eastern Railway custodian Tapan Karmakar saved the day for the railway team, stopping Asim Biswas's spot-kick at fag end of the match. For his efforts he was rightly adjudged the man of the match.
Though East Bengal played an attacking game throughout, their efforts were thwarted by an ultra-defensive railway team, especially goalkeeper Karmakar.
In the 86th minute, East Bengal forward Vincent Peres was obstructed by Karmakar inside the danger zone, resulting in the referee pointing to the dreaded spot. However, Karmakar saved Biswas's feeble shot by diving to his right and fisting away the ball.
East Bengal have 13 points from six matches, failing to win their last two matches.
They went down to arch-rivals Mohun Bagan in the first derby of the season in their last outing.
Before that, they had won five matches in a row.
