Dempo Sports Club, Goa, overcame a strong challenge from Tollygunge Agragami to prevail 3-2 in a seventh National Football League encounter in Kolkata on Sunday.
Clifford Miranda, E B Chenna and Stanley Colaco found the target for the winners, who finished their engagements with 35 points from 22 matches.
For the Kolkata side, Niladri Chakraborty and Asim Biswas were the scorers in the slow and listless Salt Lake stadium match.
Despite missing nine of their first eleven players due to office engagements or injury, Tollygunge dominated the opening session, but it was Dempo who took the lead in the 12th minute from a counter-attack. A midfield floater found Miranda, who shot home to give his team a 1-0 lead at the breather.
Dempo increased their lead in the 52nd minute, capitalising on a mistake by Tollygunge custodian Sibram Dey. A Biswarup Bisu backpass saw Dey clear the ball straight into the body of Chenna, standing nearby. The Dempo forward, who had his back towards the Tollygunge goal, turned around, and finding the ball dropping before him, banged home.
Down by a brace, Tollygunge upped the ante and reduced the margin in the 66th minute as Niladri Chakraborty tapped into the net an Asim Biswas pass.
The match suddenly livened up as two more goals came in the next three minutes.
A Jose Colaco pass from the left saw Stanley Colaco find the mark in the 67th minute to give Dempo a 3-1 lead.
But Tollygunge continued in the attack mode, and a center from substitute Sumit Bhakta saw Biswas netting his 11th goal of the tournament with a nice placement.
Tollygunge culled 23 points from their quota of 22 matches.
