Bengaluru ease past United SC to extend lead

Chhetri strikes as BFC go seven clear of Pune FC

Bengaluru FC toppled United SC 3-1 to go seven points clear at the top of the I-League table here at the Kalyani Stadium on Thursday.

The victory took BFC to 37 points from 19 games – seven clear of Pune FC, who have a game on hand.

United SC rallied through Eric Brown (54th) which cancelled Thoi Singh’s (44th) opener but an own goal from Dhanachandra Singh (61st) and a late strike from in-form striker Sunil Chhetri (89th) extended BFC’s lead at the summit.

Coming into the contest with no wins in the League for close to four months, United SC needed a positive result to reignite their campaign but they couldn’t get the result they wanted.

The away side made one change from their last game, with the mercurial Robin Singh in place of Beikhokhei Beingaichho but the former was taken off injured early on in the piece.

It was a pretty even contest in the early stages with both sides struggling to maintain possession for any length of time. But BFC managed to get their rhythm and passing going after the half-hour mark and got their reward just before the interval.

After Sean Rooney and Chhetri exchanged passes, the former picked an unmarked Thoi, who scored from closed range.

The away side started were they left off after the resumption but Brown scored against the run of play from the penalty spot after Keegan Perreira had brought down Shouvik Chakraborty.

BFC upped the ante after the setback and once again went in front after
Dhanachandra inadvertently deflected a Rooney header into his own net.

United SC created a couple of opportunities to score the leveller but they were wasteful in front of goal and Chhetri, with his 13th league goal of the campaign, made them pay late on.