Former champions East Bengal suffered a jolt in their quest for the title when they were beaten 2-0 by Sporting Clube de Goa in a National Football League match in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Nigerian striker Ernest Jeremiah struck once in each half at the Salt Lake stadium to improve the Goa team's position in the league standings.
Sporting have 12 points from nine matches while East Bengal have 15 from an equal number of outings.
Dempo lead the table with 20 points from nine games.
The Kolkata giants put up a lacklusture display and could hardly make any move worth the mention.
Only medio Alvito D'Cunha put up some fight but it was not enough to threaten the visitors.
After a few sporadic moves, Sporting took the lead in the 18th minute when Jeremiah, after collecting the ball from a melee moved into the East Bengal box and placed the ball home after dribbling past East Bengal custodian Rajat Ghosh Dastidar.
East Bengal then launched an attack but forwards Ambani and Edmilson were slow to collect a nice pass from Alvito.
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Sporting started with a renewed vigour after the break and increased their lead within four minutes.
This time Jeremiah shot home, capitalising on a pass from Dudu Omaghbemi, with East Bengal defenders looking on helplessly.
Jeremiah was unlucky to miss a hat-trick as his attempt shortly before the long whistle went out after hitting the crossbar, with the East Bengal custodian completely beaten.
After the match, enraged East Bengal supporters booed their players, pelted stones and broke window panes of the team bus as they were leaving the stadium. Police had to resort to lathi charge to disperse them.
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