Western Union Premier Division Football League when they drew goalless with Arambagh Krira Sangha at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

Ranked last before the start of the ten-team league, Sheikh Russell needed a victory against another surprise package Arambagh in the day's second fixture to assert their position at the summit of the topsy-turvy race. But after an eventful game on a chilly night marked by two black outs and a red card, they had to remain satisfied with only one point.

The outcome however kept Russell jointly atop the standings with Abahani. Both have eight points from four games. Arambagh on the other hand are in hot pursuit. They have seven points from the same number of matches.

After a spirited draw against holders Mohammedan Sporting Club and two consecutive wins, the Russell boys were certainly favorites to record their third straight victory against Arambagh and dominated the defensive-minded charges of Wajed Gazi throughout the 90 minutes. They opened up the Arambagh defense twice and looked threatening on a number of occasions even after being reduced to ten men just before half time.

Russell lost defender Jahangir Alam Mintu when he was shown his second yellow card of the match for a cynical tackle against Arambagh midfielder Walid Khan in the 44th minute.

And just after referee R Alam had blown the short whistle, darkness gripped the whole stadium as all the floodlights failed.

A second power failure took place two minutes after the restart and game was suspended for another fifteen minutes.

The exciting Russell team came close to scoring in the eighth minute when Mintu lobbed a perfect cross to an unmarked Abdel. But a diving Arambagh custodian Piru spectacularly parried off the powerful head of the Moroccan striker.

Abdel again watched in dismay as his second effort, a sudden shot from outside the box in the dying moments, just missed the far post.

Although Arambagh enjoyed the advantage of one extra booter for the last 45 minutes, they appeared uninterested to cash in and were happy to protect their own fort. Their only scoring opportunity came just before the red card incident when Shamim headed a Johnny cross into the side netting.

Red Card: Mintu (Sheikh Russell).

Yellow cards: Johnny, Oeinu and Shamim (Arambagh)

TEAMS

SHEIKH RUSSELL KC: Apel, Biplob, Narayan, Mintu, Kamal, Gurdeep, Asif, Abdel, Jalal, Rashidi and Fabio.

ARAMBAGH KS: Piru, Khaled, Anupom, Ashraful, Mostafa, Sabah, Johnny, Asad, Arman Aziz, Walid (Shamim) and Oeinu (Sohel).

Referee: R Alam.

VICTORIA VS WANDERERS

Meanwhile, the first match of the day between Victoria Sporting Club and Dhaka Wanderers also produced an exciting 1-1 draw.

After a barren first half, Mehdi headed Victoria into the lead in the 82nd minute. But it lasted only three minutes before Williams tapped home the equaliser from a goalmouth scramble.

The draw improved Victoria's tally to four points from as many games while Wanderers added their second point after two defeats in four games.