I-League: East Bengal coach Trevor Morgan resigns, Armando Colaco lined up as replacement

East Bengal head coach Trevor Morgan on Monday resigned from his post following the club's debacle in the ongoing I-League football tournament, where they crashed out of the title race after suffering four consecutive defeats.

"We have received a mail from Morgan this evening. He wants to go back home and does not want to continue till the Federation Cup. It's too late today to arrive at a decision. We will have a meeting with him tomorrow to finalise things," EB football secretary Santosh Bhattacharya said.

There are speculations that Goan manager Armando Colaco, a familiar face at East Bengal, may take over from Morgan, even as Bhattacharya refused to confirm. East Bengal's hopes for the elusive I-League title went up in smoke after their 0-1 loss yesterday to DSK Shivajians. East Bengal's string of losses began with Churchill Brothers, followed by defeats against Chennai City FC in both whom and return leg -- all by identical 2-1 margins.

The derby defeat was enough for the fans, who laid siege at the club last week demanding Morgan's ouster. However the club gave him a lifeline till Federation Cup, even as they showed the door to his deputy Warren Hackett and goalkeeping coach Abhijit Mondal. East Bengal are now third on the table with 27 points from 16 fixtures, below title contenders Aizawl FC and Mohun Bagan.

Bhaskar Ganguly, Manoranjan Bhattacharya and Tushar Rakshit are likely to oversee the practice sessions tomorrow, following which Colaco is expected to take over. The Goan had last managed the club in 2015.