For those who have been following Calcutta football, it will be another match-up between coaches Amal Datta and PK Banerjee.

Bagan will still miss injured Jo Paul Ancheri. Samuel Omollo has received call-up for national duty and Debjit Ghosh has two yellows. Bagan's new-look defence will then see Satyabrato Bhowmick and Biswanath Mondal as the only regulars.

The young Tollygunge midfield including Bastab Roy and skipper Chandan Das have been doing the main scheming while Felix Abayomi and Biswarup Bisu have been distributing adeptly to Chibuzor and Roshan Pereira. Hussain Mustafi has stood out in defence.

East Bengal eyeing three points

CHENNAI: Two straight draws coming in tandem after that gentle appetiser of a2-0 win at home against FC Kochin was hardly the start East Bengal would have bargained for the New Year, reports KV Vasudevan.

Effectively, that places them in a must-win situation against Indian Bank in the Coca Cola National Football League match at the Nehru Stadium on Saturday.

The return of Basudev Mondal, who missed the last match against ITI due to personal reasons, boosts the mid-field. With the likes of Carlton Chapman, Tushar Rakshit and Ranjan Dey at his disposal, one need not have to be a soothsayer to say where the team's metier lies.

Bhaichung Bhutia is not exactly in his elements but can pull out a trick or two. Raman Vijayan, formerly from Indian Bank, is known to use his head when he is not directing those razor sharp crosses.

For Indian Bank, the win against Mahindras came in like oxygen. The other thing which augurs well for them is that they had never been wary of taking on the Calcuttan teams. But they will start on the wrong foot with their principal weapon Sathyan out with twoyellow card bookings.