Pearless completed a comprehensive victory over Rainbow in the Calcutta Premier Division regular season on Wednesday, running out 6:1 winners at the home ground. The visitors had been in steady form recently, picking up draws against Aryan and Mezer before closing out their run with a clean sheet against Vari. Rainbow's visitors from the lower reaches of the table were not expected to trouble them much, but this result went beyond what anyone could have predicted.
It started in curious fashion, with Rainbow's S. Manna finding the net after just three minutes, a moment that briefly lifted the home crowd. To be fair, Pearless did not panic, and within ten minutes T. Biswakarma had equalised before S. Nayek took the lead at the 15th-minute mark. That was the pattern for much of the first half — Pearless responding to Rainbow's sporadic moments of threat.
And here's the thing about Nayek, who ended the night with four goals in as many appearances. He struck at 32, 56, 72 and 78, turning what could have been a comfortable win into something that left Rainbow with nothing to show for their efforts. A. Seth added a fifth for Pearless at the half-hour mark, but it was Nayek's persistence that defined the match.
The result leaves Rainbow rooted to 21st place with seven points from eleven games, while Pearless move up to 12th on fourteen points. By then, the gap between the sides was not just in the table — it was in everything they showed on the pitch. Rainbow have won just two matches all season, and this result does nothing to change that trajectory.