MAPUSA: Penha de Franca Sports Club scored a narrow 2-1 win over Vagator Parish Youth Sports Club in the GFA’s First Division League match played at Duler Stadium, here on Thursday.
Penha de France now have six points while Vagator have one point.
At halftime both teams were tied at 1-1.
It was Vagator who broke the deadlock when in the 9th minute of play Pavan Dhargalkar set up Nitesh Salgaocar whose effort at goal was blocked by defender Shane Temudo only to see the ball kiss the side post and roll once again towards Nitesh who this time made no mistake in scoring, 1-0.
Penha de France exerted tremendous pressure and finally managed to restore parity in the injury minutes of the first half when Vagator keeper Adney Fernandes brought on a vicious challenge on Sylvester Dias, prompting the referee to point to the dreaded spot. Josley Dias’s resultant penalty kick was blocked by keeper Sherwin Da Cunha, however Anil Gaonkar who was lurking nearby fired the ball home, 1-1.
Crossing over both the sides put up a splendid performance, keeping their large number of supporters on the edge of their seats.
Sylvester Dias saw his floater from the left flank ricochet off the Penha de France woodwork while in the next minute Penha keeper Adney Fernandes did remarkably well to deny Omkar Satelkar from scoring from close range.
Couple of minutes into the match Josley Dias saw his powerful left footer go inches past the Vagator goal.
At the other end Penha’s Josley Dias missed his third goal scoring opportunity, as his left footer went just past the side post.
Penha de France managed to take the lead in the 55th minute through Anil Gaonkar who slotted home the ball from inside the Vagator goal-area, 2-1.
