Agencies

PUNE: Salgaocar Football Club rode on a ninth minute goal from Francis Fernandes to edge past Mumbai Football Club 1-0 in a fourth round match of I-League football at Balewadi Sports Complex here, Saturday.

Arial, sans-serif; ">Mumbai’s Ghanaian and Nigerian combination of Yusif Yakubu and Ndibuisi Opara spurned a handful of chances in the middle of the second half and failed to break the shackles.

Substitute Gabriel Fernandes too had three clear chances, but luck was not on his side as the Khalid Jamil’s side suffered to yet another loss — the worst ever start made by Mumbai outfit since they qualified for the top-tier league.

Visitors Salgaocar had a fortified defence for a major part of the match and the lapses towards the end were, however, nullified by ever-alert custodian Karanjeet Singh.

Mumbai coach Khalid Jamil had no words to explain his side’s wretched run and just praised the way Salgaocar played.

Mumbai started tentatively while Salgaocar began on an attacking note right from the word go. On a move initiated by Namibian Quinton Jacobs, Randeep Singh set himself up in a nice position at the edge of the right flank before sending a cross at the far end of the post. Man-of-the-match Francis rushed from the left to head the ball past Mumbai custodian K Sharath.

The win took Salgaocar up to the seventh position from the 11th which they occupied before the match and saw their tally swell to five points from four matches. Mumbai are yet to open their account.

Salgaocar slacked a bit after the change of ends which allowed Mumbai some room to manoeuvre but as has been the case right through the season, luck deserted them all the while.

Quinton could have doubled the lead for Salgaocar but the Namibian forward shot over the bar in the 50th minute. Mumbai counterattacked in the very next minute, but Opara was ruled off-side when he was just two yards from the goal-line with just Karanjeet to beat. Opara wasted yet another chance when he shot wayward in the 61st minute.

Mumbai made their first substitution when Gabriel Fernandes replaced Abhishek Yadav who soon got into the thick of action.

Realising that Mumbai were in an attacking mindset, Salgaocar’s interim coach Peter Valles pulled Quinton out and sent Agnel Aldeguer in, but that did not change things much.

Mumbai kept on attacking with fresh legs of Gabriel moving all over the front-line. In the 71st minute, Gabriel and Opara squandered yet another chance on a move created by Ashutosh Mehta and Dane Pererira.

The best chance came in the 80th minute when Gabriel collected a pass from Chakraborty but his right-footer flew over the post.