Coimbatore: Chennai City continued its streak of draws with another goalless stalemate against Shillong Lajong at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Sunday.
The draw, their fourth consecutive and seventh overall meant the south-Indian club continued to linger at the penultimate position with just 13 points from 15 games and closer to relegation. Lajong on the other notched a rung up to the fifth with 18 points after 16 games, but have failed to win in the last four encounters.
It also means Chennai remain winless after seven home games, five of which have ended in draws while two were defeats to East Bengal and Gokulam.
But the home side had begun well and could have gone ahead in the opening minutes when Aleksander Rakic split the Lajong defence to pick out Soosairaj’s run into the box, but the skipper’s chip over the keeper’s head hit the woodwork, before running way for a corner.
Abdoulaye Koffi on the other side hit straight at Chennai custodian Kabir after the Ivorian had surged forward.
That was however the beginning of a busy day for Kabir, who made headlines after saving a Akram Moghrabi penalty against Mohun Bagan immediately after coming off the bench and against the Reds it was yet again him, who time and again kept Chennai in the game.
His finger-tip save to deny Lajong captain Samuel Lalmuanpuia was the highlight of the day. But the game was far from over and needed two goal-line saves, one each from both the sides to keep the game to a goalless draw.
Kabir’s decision to come out of his line nearly cost Chennai the game when Saihou Jagne ran clear at goal but Dharmaraj Ravanan was well at hand to pull out a goal-line save.
Minutes later Rakesh Pradhan produced a similar save after Schumeiko’s shot had taken a huge deflection towards goal.