Kevin Galvin (@kjgalvin93)

As ATK goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya booted a regulation free-kick back over the touchline and referee Ramachandra Venkatesh blew the final whistle, it was an appropriate end to a forgettable Sunday night encounter defined by its mistakes.

In fact, if it wasn’t for such charity by both custodians at either end, a scoreless draw would have been a more fitting scoreline to chalk off a game that failed to live up to its billing, or its sold-out crowd at the Furnace.

While Saturday night’s 1-1 draw between Delhi and Kerala was a high-intensity, entertaining encounter, last night’s snoozefest saw just four shots on target, three by the hosts, who were the only ones to offer anything meaningful across the 90 minutes.

Tim Cahill’s arrival to Jamshedpur has been the talk of the ISL since the season began, but having had his heading abilities extolled on the official site, the former Australian international then fluffed an absolute dolly from Mario Arqués’ and straight at a hugely relieved Bhattacharya.

The 38-year old was subbed off with a quarter-hour left, and very clearly looks like his age is catching up with him. Unable to pose the mobile, dynamic threat he once did from midfield, the unequipped striker is struggling to make a meaningful impact, jettisoned on the shoulder of the last man.

Had that gone in, it would have been difficult to see how Steve Coppell’s ATK would have rescued anything from a performance that saw their only shot-on-target come directly from a corner.

Fortunately for them, Subhashish Chowdhury was too busy being distracted by the Kolkata players placed around his six-yard box, and instead of giving himself that key split second to meet the ball correctly, he rushed forward, and could only get a fingertip on Manuel Lanzarote’s corner as it nestled into the far corner.

That was after Bhattacharya had his own timing difficulties, diving far too early to Chidoncha’s free-kick, and, unable to get his full body behind an awkward effort that kicked off the ground in front of him, he could but push it into the roof of the net.

The talk post-game was predictably about those goalkeeping errors, but more worryingly for both sides was the toothless displays going forward, particularly for Jamshedpur, who missed a golden opportunity to take top spot against an ATK side that look like they have an awful lot of work to do if they’re to challenge for a playoff spot this season.

Coppell at least made sure that his old mate from Reading, André Bikey, will rack up the necessary appearances to get whatever bonus he’s due, again bringing him on less than a minute before Venkatesh’s final whistle.

Both side’s commendable defensive efforts will be some takeaway from last night for the football purists.

But for the majority of those 22,812 in Jharkhand, and the watching TV audience that decided to tune out of India’s pointlessly one-sided series against the West Indies, this was not the sort of game that would encourage repeat custom.

Jamshedpur FC: S Chowdhury; R Gurung, P Chowdhary, Tiri, Y Raju; Memo (Pablo Morgado 83), Mario Arqués; J Mawihmingthanga, Chidoncha, M Soosairaj (S Passi 74); T Cahill (Carlos Calvo 74).

ATK: A Bhattacharya; A Khongjee, J Johnston, Gerson, R Lallawmawma; K Thatal (J Rane 66), Éverton Santos, P Halder, N El Maimouni; M Lanzarote (A Bikey 90+4); B Singh (H Sharma 90+1).

Referee: R Venkatesh.