Two out of two... Jaime Colado and Joby Justin’s strikes on Sunday ensured East Bengal made it a fantastic double — a long-awaited one — against Mohun Bagan in this I-League.

And it came after almost 15 long years in the competition at the iconic Salt Lake Stadium, thanks to the game plan, tactics and strategy devised by a Spaniard who has once trained the youth of a club of Real Madrid’s stature.

After Subhas Bhowmick, coach Alejandro Garcia achieved the distinction of guiding East Bengal to prevail twice over Bagan in both phases of a national league. While Joby, just as he did in the first leg, scored again as well as coming up with an assist to be adjudged Man of the Match in this 2-0 victory.

Full points earned from this game take East Bengal up to the fourth position in the standings with 25 points, as their title hopes are still alive. Given table-toppers Chennai City FC’s quality and their amazing consistency, it still looks very difficult for East Bengal to win the title. One might as well feel it’s a bit of wishful thinking on their part, but this victory will certainly boost them further and that can at least create some pressure on Chennai City.

It was in the 35th minute when Joby set one up for Colado that gave East Bengal the lead. Getting past Eze Kinglsey, who had a pretty ordinary game, Joby passed to Colado who evaded Gurjinder Kumar and converted smartly past an advancing Shilton Paul. That, in fact, was East Bengal’s first shot at goal.

Late in the 76th minute, Joby headed home a Lalrindika Ralte corner that virtually sealed the game. One half of the 62,629-strong turnout started leaving the stadium soon after the second goal, and it goes without saying which team they cheered for.

The entire move behind East Bengal’s second goal is a highlight of what Alejandro and his men seem to have planned during closed-door training sessions prior to the Derby.

Bagan’s focus was on marking Johnny Acosta, who had moved up for the header. Instead, Ralte kept it for Joby, who was more or less free, and he calmly headed it home. A perfect execution of a well-planned set-piece move, something that Bagan were miserable with…

For most of last week, their coach Khalid Jamil had conducted practice sessions on set-piece moves. But despite getting more corners than East Bengal, Bagan couldn’t even come close to scoring off any of them.

They did put one in eight minutes into the second half, but Dipanda Dicka’s goal was disallowed as Darren Caldeira was ruled offside after Sony Norde took the corner.

For Bagan, the defeat means their title hopes are all but over. Besides, they will have to bear the ignominy of not being able to beat their arch-rivals even once this season. This was also Sony’s first Derby defeat, while the script didn’t change for Khalid either as he remains winless in Calcutta Derbies.

To be fair to Bagan, they were luckless as well, as one of their key players, Yuta Kinowaki, was ruled out with a muscle pull sustained just before kick-off. That forced Khalid to change his game plan. He had to bring in Henry Kisekka as the second striker along with Dicka, while Sony operated from the flanks.

Both Dicka and Sony weren’t sharp enough and for that, some credit should go to East Bengal defender Acosta and Borja Perez. Lalram Chullova and Kassim Aidara too were instrumental in keeping Sony at bay.

That said, Bagan should have had a numerical advantage in the second half, as Colado was lucky to escape a red card. He hit a grounded Dicka without provocation early after the change of ends, but wasn’t even booked.

Dicka was again brought down inside the box by Kassim in the 66th minute and that was overlooked as well. Adding insult to injury, Bagan’s physio Samiran Nag was sent off for showing dissent.

It turned out to be a Derby Bagan would like to forget fast.