MAPUSA: Ten-man Sporting Clube de Goa registered a hard-fought 1-0 win over Guardian Angel Sports Club in the Goa Professional League match, organised by Goa Football Association, played at Duler grounds here on Thursday.
With this win, Sporting strengthen their top spot with 42 points from 16 matches, while Angels have 17 points from 14 matches.
Sporting were in a fantastic form as they are the only unbeaten team in the league. In the recent match, they defeated Calangute Association 4-1, whereas, Angels had suffered a defeat at the hands of Salgaocar FC in the previous round match.
The league leaders made a superb start and completely dominated the first ten minutes with continuous attacks on the opponents where they got their first chance in the very second minutes when U-20 winger Myron Fernandes found Marcus Mascarenhas with a cross but the striker saw his tap landed in the waiting hands of Angel’s keeper Ram Sroop.
A few minutes later, Cajetan Fernandes came with another cross to Nigerian Philip Odogwu whose header was tipped over the post by Angel’s custodian.
The Flaming Orange suffered an early blow in the 11th minutes when they were reduced to 10 men after their keeper Melroy Fernandes was sent off for his reckless tackle on Angel’s Nigerian Yakubu Mohammed just outside the penalty box in one to one situation. However, Nigerian Abel Hammond could not do any damage to the opponents from the resultant free-kick as his shot hit the defensive wall.
With a man down, Sporting lowered their tempo and the match was restricted to the midfield play for the rest of the session, except for the swift move from the Angels in added time when Yakubu Mohammad tried his luck from the edge of the box only to see it timely cleared by Sporting defender Brandon Gomes for a corner.
Angels had a chance to surge ahead in the first minute of the second session when Perryson Rebello made a run on the wing and released the ball to overlapping Abel Hammond but the striker was late to connect with an empty goal in front.
Sporting punished them for not taking a chance and came with a goal in the 54th minutes when Daryl Costa sent a cross to unmarked Marcus Mascarenhas in the box whose header was rebounded off the goal post but well-positioned Cajetan Fernandes made no mistake to slam the ball home to take his side into the 1-0 lead.
A few minutes later, Cajetan had a chance to double their lead as after getting a square pass from Marcus the midfielder went for the glory with a left-footer but his curling efforts were brilliantly pushed for a corner by keeper Ram.
At the other end, Sporting U-20 keeper who came in after sending off of Melroy came with an excellent save as he brilliantly tipped Perryson’s goalbound free kick for a safety. Whereas, Marcus saw his scorching shot from 25-yards was denied by the woodwork.
Angels wasted an easy chance to level the terms with just five minutes left to full-time whistle as this time Yakubu was late to finish the ball in the empty goal from close off Perryson’s pin-point perfect through pass. They had one more opportunity in the added time but Sporting keeper nicely paired Sanwil D’Costa’s header for a corner to confirm all three points from the match.
