Team Herald
MAPUSA: Sesa Football Academy fought hard and managed to scrape past Goa Police by a 2-1 win in the GFA’s First Division League match played at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Thursday.
The Sesa lads who before today’s match had earned only two points from three matches, took on the field determined to wrap up the proceedings in their favour.
Goa Police, who came into the match with a three match unbeaten run.
Sesa piled on the attack at the very start of the match but Goa Police keeper Niklesh Naik did well to thwart Veegan Ferrao from scoring.
Sesa finally managed to take the lead through Kunnal Salgaonkar who on collecting the ball from Saviour Gama unleashed a power-packed shot which had no answer from the rival keeper, 1-0.
Within a couple of minutes Goa Police almost restored parity, however Sesa keeper Roanal Gaunkar came with a splendid save to pair away Loyed Rebello’s right footer.
Abdul Khan was unlucky not to have his name added to the scorers list, as in the 26th minute his blistering shot ricocheted off the Sesa woodwork.
Savio Gama gave Sesa a 2-0 lead in the 32nd minute of play through a placing strike off Veegan Ferrao’s pass.
On resumption of play Goa Police seemed determined to turn around the fate of the match in their favour.
In the 59th minute of play the referee found Sesa defender Anil Chawan guilty of handling the ball inside the 18-yard box and pointed to the penalty spot. However to the dismay of Goa Police supporters, Sesa keeper Roanal managed to block Abdul Khan’s penalty kick.
Within a span of four minutes Abdul managed to make amends and helped Goa Police to reduce the margin when he squeezed his way past the Sesa defenders and sent a pinpoint pass to Milind Shinde who made no mistake in scoring, 1-2.
In the 69th minute of play Goa Police had a chance to restore parity when Abdul Khan charged into the Sesa danger zone and managed to place the ball past the onrushing keeper, however Dhiraj Chauhan followed up well and cleared the ball to safety.
