With the scoreline tied at 2-2, Ritu latched onto a right side cross by Juku in the 84th minute but the ball came off the Mohammedan crossbar before custodian Biplab gathered it in at the second attempt. Ritu was once again left unmarked by the rival defenders just before the end of regulation 90 minutes but this time, he completely mishit the ball from six yards with only the hapless goalkeeper to beat.

Mohammedan's second draw in three second-leg matches and overall fourth stalemate, meant the Black and Whites stayed top of the table with 31 points at the start of the 13th round. But defending champions Brothers Union now threaten to overtake the leaders if they can collect full points against last year's runners-up Sheikh Russel in today's crucial match.

Arambagh, who are just ahead of the relegation zone, increased their collection to 12 points with the valuable point.

Arambagh, who also held local giants Abahani in the 11th round but failed to keep it up against Brothers before going down 2-1 in their previous outing, went ahead after 25 minutes. Morshed stabbed the ball into the near post after two Mohammedan defenders fumbled to clear a low left-side centre by Ritu.

But the Black and Whites made a spirited comeback, going ahead with two goals in the next seven minutes. It was defensive midfielder Arman Aziz who drilled in a first-time volley in the 27th minute after Arambagh goalkeeper Shakil pun-ched a lob by Kamal out of their area.

Mohammedan, who won their first-leg meeting 3-1, looked like repeating their victory when Alfaz's dazzling 30-yard run down the middle inspired them to take the lead five minutes later. The Mohammedan skipper, who raced into the box with a through from Manju, saw his powerful left-footed drive spectacularly blocked by Shakil but an onrushing Donald Robert made no mistake to place the rebound into an empty net for his second league goal.

Alfaz was denied from close range on the stroke of the breather by Shakil while Ritu's dropped-volley from ten yards was parried by a diving Biplab six minutes after the restart.

Manju, the league's top scorer with eight goals, must rue a golden chance to make it 3-1 for Moha-mmedan on the hour when his placing shot on a chip from Munna was smartly stopped one-handed by substitute keeper Al Amin.

Arambagh lost their goal-scorer Morshed through injury four minutes before the break but his replacement Rintu finally pulled off the equaliser in the more entertaining second half. Fullback Juku, who was unstoppable on the right flank, picked Ritu in the box but the forward cut it back to midfielder Rintu whose powerful drive went in off the legs of Mohammedan stopper Nazrul.

The exhausted Mohammedan players were chasing shadows afterwards as Arambagh, in spite of enjoying superior ball possession, failed to utilise their chances.

Yellow cards: Arman Aziz, Donald (Mohammedan) and Ramjan, Ritu (Arambagh).

TEAMS
MOHAMMEDAN: Biplab, Nazrul, Odaf, Hassan, Rony, Munna, Arman Aziz (Nakib), Donald (Khokon), Kamal, Manju (Zahid) and Alfaz.

ARAMBAGH: Shakil (Al Amin), Juku, Ramjan, Ghansah, Akram, Russel, Imrul, Faisal, Morshed (Rintu), Patrick and Ritu.

Referee: Tayab Hassan.