MARGAO: The search for a maiden win continues for Sporting Clube de Goa as they failed to capitalize on the scoring opportunities yet again and were held to a goalless draw by inform Royal Wahingdoh in a 15th round match of Hero I-league, at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda, here, on Tuesday.
The Flaming Oranje kept pressing hard for a goal early moments of the game and had six clear chances in the opening session but their forwards misfired from close range.
At the other end, the visitors were forced to defend and came back strongly in the second half.
Sporting Clube who were denied their first win in their last match against Dempo FC due to goalkeeping and defensive lapses made two changes, bringing in keeper Ravi Kumar and Anthony Wolfe in place of Lalit Thapa and Velito D’Cruz respectively.
Royal Wahingdoh’s defense put up a good performance as they held their forte together along with keeper Nikhil Bernard, who brought in three close saves to deny Sandesh Jhingan, Odafe Okolie and Mahmoud Al Amna.
Royal Wahingdoh’s attempts on goal were restricted to long rangers. One from Godwin Franco was just wide of the upright and another one by Bekay Bawar landed straight into the hands of the goalkeeper Ravi Kumar.
In the second session, Royal Wahingdoh were in much better form and created chances for themselves to surge ahead. Jackichand Singh was nippy on the left while substitute Seityasen Singh posed plenty of problems for his markers as well. Seityasen had a good chance inside the box until he was tackled well by Sporting Clube defender Sandesh Jhingan.
At the other end, substitute midfielder Brandon Fernandes created a chance for Mahmoud but the Wahingdoh goalkeeper proved equal to the challenge.
Sporting also came close with Jhingan’s header hitting the upright from Brandon Fernandes’s corner towards the closing stages.
