The two supposedly best teams in the country dished out the most drab goalless draw in the I-League football championship at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday.
Goa's Dempo Sports Club and JCT from Punjab provided a lacklustre game to the sparse crowd of football lovers in the capital and the fare on display was a poor advertisement for the beautiful game.
The result left Dempo at the top of the pile with 14 points while JCT remaining two behind. Both teams are yet unbeaten in the league.
Both teams missed their main strikers - Sunil Chettri for JCT and Nigerian Chidi Edeh for Dempo - and could have been one of the reasons for the stalemate.
JCT, for whom the match was deemed to be a home game, edged the first half as far as ball possession was concerned, but there were precious few goalmouth opportunities.
Brazilian Roberto Mendes Silva, popularly known as 'Beto', tried to create some chances for Dempo but did not get the required support from his teammates.
Man of the match Marcos Pereira was the standout player for JCT, but his Brazilian compatriot Eduardo da Silva was a big disappointment.
Beto took the first shot in anger in the 17th minute from outside the box which had JCT custodian Karanjeet Singh scrambling, but eventually relived to see the effort go just wide off the post.
The team from Punjab came close minutes later when Parveen Kumar, playing in place of Chettri, latched on to a through ball before beating advancing keeper V P Satish Kumar.
It needed a last minute desperate challenge from Sameer Naik to clear the ball.
The rest of the first period was a tale of errant shooting with Jaspal Singh failing to hit the target from distance for JCT, and a header from Dempo's Nigerian striker Ranti Martins going just wide.
Sukhwinder Singh's JCT went into the break with a bit of momentum after a corner from Pereira from the right flag was flicked goalwards by Baldeep Singh, only for it to be cleared off the goal line.
The second half was forgettable viewing with the best effort coming from Dempo's Joaquim Abranches, included in Chidi's place, testing Karanjeet with a strong shot from the edge of the box. The keeper collected the ball after a slight fumble.
Both coaches were not too dissatisfied with a point each.
"To take a point from a team like JCT in an away match is a satisfactory result for us and we are still at the top of the table," Dempo coach Armando Colaco said.
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