Dempo lucky to hold Oilmen

Dempo lucky to hold Oilmen
TEAM HERALD 
sports@herald-goa.com
MAPUSA: Dempo substitute Peter Carvalho’s late equalizer helped the reigning champions to salvage a draw against a spirited ONGC in a Round 18 I-League football match at Duler Stadium, here, Sunday.
An injury hit Dempo missed captain Clifford Miranda due to a hamstring injury and Climax Lawrence led the team with Nigerian Koko Sakibo and Joaquim Abranches upfront.
Santosh Kashyap’s men started confidently having won their three previous games without conceding a goal.
The teams started on an attacking note and in the ninth minute, ONGC’s Bimal Minj was cautioned by referee CR Srikrishna for his nasty tackle on Dempo’s Debarata Roy who was later replaced by Samir Naik in the 12th minute due to an ankle injury.
ONGC took time to settle down and soon threatened the rival goal as Jatin Bisht’s powerful long-ranger was blocked by Dempo goalkeeper Subhashish Roy Chowdhury in the 16th minute. 
In the next minute, Dempo gave away a needless free-kick at the edge of the box after Koko brought down ONGC’s Yusa Katsumi. However it did not affect the scoreline as Dempo’s Rowilson Rodrigues headed away a dangerous free-kick by Yusa.
At the other end, Climax essayed an intelligent long ball to Koko but ONGC goalkeeper Rehenesh TP made a timely clearance in the 20th minute.
Samir made a promising run in the rival citadel but went down too easily as the referee booked Samir for diving in the 24th minute.
Dempo enjoyed the lion’s share of ball possession but their midfield failed to feed their forwards. Later, Denzil Franco’s venomous shot went inches wide in the 35th minute.
The Oilmen had more shots on target and kept the Dempo defenders on their toes. They surged ahead in the 37th minute through a set-piece. Eric Brown’s free-kick was guided into the rival nylons by Jatin Bisht’s header that left Subhashish stunned.
Stunned by the setback, the home team regrouped quickly in search of the equalizer but Anthony Pereira’s close range header went over the crossbar in the 42nd minute after Valeriano Rebello’s cross to Nicolau Borges was headed towards Anthony.
Just before the lemon break, Anthony had another chance to equalize but his curling free-kick went inches wide after ONGC’s Hassan Adeola had brought down Climax.
In the second session, Dempo started brightly with Abranches sending a low cross to Koko inside the box in the 52nd minute but the Nigerian could not get his foot to it.    
Five minutes later, Dempo head coach Armando Colaco replaced Koko with John De Menyongar who quickly changed the pace of the game with his quick passes.
In the 62nd minute, Dempo made their final substitution as Peter Carvalho came in place of Nicolau Borges. Carvalho had a golden opportunity to equalize but the latter ballooned over from hand-shaking distance after Valeriano had done all the spade work.
Dempo tried hard in the last quarter but shots from Abranches, Climax and Anthony did not bear fruit.
It looked as if the Oilmen would take home the vital three points. However, Dempo took advantage of the situation when fourth official A Rowan displayed five minutes of added time. Carvalho made up for his earlier misses when he bulged the nylons from hand-shaking distance after Godwin’s powerful shot was blocked by the rival custodian and fell to Carvalho.
High drama followed in what was the last kick of the game as ONGC’s Surabunddin Mollick’s shot hit the crossbar and bounced off the goalline after crossing the goalline, but suprisingly the referee and the assistant referee failed to do justice to ONGC.
ONGC coach Santosh Kashyap was happy to collect one point as they remain undefeated in their last six matches after taking over from Subrata Bhattacharya. “I am pleased with a point. It was very difficult for the team to adjust in these conditions after training in Delhi for the past 20 days,” said Kashyap while expressing his displeasure over the refereeing in Indian football.
Dempo head coach Armando Colaco was relieved to salvage a point from a losing situation after they missed too many chances in the last quarter. “Finally, I’m happy and relieved at the end of the day. Despite all the injuries we played well. None of the teams deserved to lose. Even after a hamstring problem, Koko forcibly wanted to play while Debarata is ruled out of the next game due to an ankle injury,” said the 59-year-old.
Dempo now have 34 points and are currently occupying the third spot after 17 matches.
ehss while ONGC are fifth with 27 points after 18 matches.