Sankarlal accuses Santos of play-acting, Alejandro Menendez praises East Bengal duo

Laldanmawia Ralte and Jobby Justin had particularly impressive outings in the Red and Gold Brigade's important win.

East Bengal emerged victorious in a thrilling Kolkata Derby at the Salt Lake Stadium on Sunday, registering their first win in two years against the Mariners. A brace from Laldanmawia Ralte and a goal from Jobby Justin cancelled out Azharuddin Mallick’s early strike, while Aser Dipanda Dicka’s thunderous goal went in vain for the 10-man Mariners, who lost Kingsley Eze in the second half.

However, in the post-match press conference, coach Sankarlal Chakraborty wasn’t so sure of the decision and even questioned debutant Jaime Santos’ involvement. He said, “Kingsley's red-card isn't deserved. Jamie Santos did a lot of play-acting. He should've also been reprimanded by the referee for his actions."

He further added, “Santos just fell on his own feet. What more play-acting will he do?” However, despite the defeat, Sankarlal praised the fight his players showed after going a man down."

Mohun Bagan opened the scoring on Sunday evening against East Bengal

"The way we played as 10 men was motivational. Our 10 men fought hard to try and score goals. The positive thinking is there among the players to fight for wins," Chakraborty asserted.

Although, he faulted The Mariners' wastefulness for not completing the comeback. He said, “The way we played well as 10 men was great. However, the turning point is how we wasted chances even after being down to 10 men, which cost us in the end.”

Finally, when asked about whether his side's title hopes have faded with this defeat Sankarlal explained, “For us, time is quickly running out. The derby loss doesn't only take a physical toll, but a mental toll on our team as well. We hope to recover from that quickly. Only time will tell if we can win the title this season.”

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On the other hand, East Bengal head coach Alejandro Menendez refused to take the credit for the win, stating how he’s not only here to win matches with the side, but to improve the players as well. When asked about how special the momentous occasion was for him he said, “I think the environment was really nice. We are lucky to live through these kind of matches. We saw a high-quality match in the ground and that's good news for the fans.”

When asked about who he felt were key to East Bengal’s first Kolkata Derby win in seven matches he said, “Everyone played really well today. Today we used Jaime like a second striker. The performance of all the attackers was very good. I'm very satisfied with the work-rate of every player, especially the way Danmawia played.”

Menendez didn’t think Mohun Bagan missing Sony Norde was the reason for their disappointment and said, “When you miss an important player, always the team goes down. Today, we shouldn't talk about Norde or Enrique's miss, but about the quality of the match which was great.”

Jaime Santos Colado made his debut for East Bengal on Sunday

When speaking about the referee’s performance Menendez remained coy and said, “I couldn't see any play-acting during the match. This is a subjective decision from the referee. I think the referee didn't influence the result.”

He added, “If you review all the actions, you will find one offside and some officiating mistakes. But, the referee didn't influence the score.”

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On areas of improvement Menendez explained, “Yes, we have to improve how we control possession. We missed that in the second half and allowed Mohun Bagan to press us. For the future, we'll try to control matches throughout the 90 minutes.”

Finally, Menendez had some bright words for striker Jobby Justin and said, “Jobby is playing really well right now. His movement off the ball during the games is really good and his link-up with the other players is very good, along with his goal scoring ability. I feel he is ready for the national team.”