29 Jan 2020  |   05:47am IST

Assonora United win five-goal thriller against Pilerne SC

Assonora move to six points while Pilerne remain on three points
Assonora United win five-goal thriller against Pilerne SC

Team Herald

MAPUSA: Assonora United huffed and puffed their way to a hard fought 3-2 win over Pilerne Sports Club in the third-round match of the GFA's 2nd Division league played at Duler Stadium here on Tuesday.

With Tuesday’s win Assonora United moved to six points while Pilerne remain on three points.

Both the teams went into the breather tied 1-1 with Brijesh Kankonkar, Dikshay Sarap and Kanaya Govenkar finding the net for Assonora while Ànson Dsouza and Prakash Rathod scored for Pilerne.

After some initial misses, Assonora managed to take the lead in the 16th minute through Brijesh Kankonkar who finished clinically from a long ball floated into the box by Stepelton, 1-0

Assonora squandered two decent chances of doubling their lead. First Stepelton could not keep his shot goal wards from close range and then Brijesh’s cross which curled towards the goal hit the top post and came back into play.

Pilerne who were pegged back in their own half managed to level terms in the 43rd minute when Rajat Chopdekar cross in the danger box was not properly cleared by the Assonora defender and the ball came to Anson who unleashed a low grounder that crashed into the net, 1-1

Crossing end, Pilerne were unlucky not to go ahead when Dwayne Britto’s fierce 30-yard shot hit the cross bar with the keeper stranded.

Assonora made it 2-1 in the 56th minute when Dikshay Sarap shot from the left flank and took an awkward bounce infront of the Pilerne keeper Siddhant and entered the goal, 2-1.

Hardly had the cheers died down, Assonora made it 3-1 after they were awarded a penalty by referee Barkat Khan for a foul on Kanaya by Pilerne keeper Siddhant. Kanaya Govenkar who stepped forward made no mistake in sending the keeper the wrong way.

Pilerne hope of getting back into the match became even harder when in the 70th minute Anson D`Souza was shown the red card for showing indecent to the referee.

Down by a man, Pilerne managed to pull a goal back through substitute Prakash Rathod in the added time to set up a tense finish, 3-2.

IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar