East Bengal beat Lajong FC

Shillong: East Bengal began their I-League campaign in style by thrashing Shillong Lajong FC 4-0 in a one-sided match here on Wednesday.

The visitors dominated the proceedings throughout and James Moga opened scoring in the 20th minute as he headed a low corner kick from Ralte, silencing the home crowd who beat drums to cheer their side. Lajong`s chance of restoring parity came in the 43rd minute when Ornell Glen`s pass to Subash Singh went a little too high above the cross bar. Chidi Edeh doubled the lead for East Bengal for the visitors in the dying minutes of the first half, dribbling past three Lajong defenders before finding the target with a powerful right footer. The visitors could have scored another goal through Chidih had Lallawmzuala not cleared it on time and right on the goal-line. From then on, it was no looking back for the visitors as they pumped in two more goals after the lemon break. A 12,000-strong home crowd were left silent throughout the match as Lajong looked like novices against East Bengal who had just returned from their AFC Cup semifinal match against Kuwait SC. Lajong seems to lack everything on the field -? style, confidence and maturity -? and were found running helter skelter after the ball. Calvin Lobo deepened Lajong`s wound when he scored in the 55th minutes after being fed by James Moga to leave the home side in complete disarray. PTI