MARGAO: Guardian Angel Sports Club, Curchorem tore into Goa Police with a 5-0 demolition to emerge champions of GFA’s First Division football league and earned a promotion in next seasons Goa Professional League, at SAG ground, Assolna, on Friday.
Guardian Angel led 3-0 at half time. The highlight of the day was a brilliant hat-trick by striker Maclon Colaco. Joston Pereira and substitute Richard Fernandes added their names in the impressive scorer list.
Guardian Angel put up a tremendous pressure on the rival defence with their forwards and midfielders working in tandem to put the rival defence into disarray. Striker Maclon put Guardian Angel into the lead in the 28th minute when he slotted past the rival goalkeeper Mukesh Pednekar with a snap shot off a well-measured cross from Austern Fernandes.
Subsequently, Maclon doubled the lead when he punished the rival goalkeeper with a clinical finish off a pass from Joston Pereira.
Any thought that Guardian Angel would take their foot off the accelerator were wiped away in the 40th minute when Maclon registered his hat-trick by beating rival goalkeeper with clinical finish off a pass from veteran Johnny D’Cruz.
Goa Police had a golden chance in the injury time but Guardian Angel goalkeeper Jovial Coutinho blocked Hemanth Kholkar’s volley.
Post resumption, Guardian Angel enjoyed the lion’s share of exchanges and troubled the rival defence with well orchestrated raids.
At the other end, Goa Police exhibited a better performance after resumption but goals eluded them.
Goa Police nearly reduced the deficit in the 58th minute when Gaurav Kankonkar’s smart header went into the safe hands of rival goalkeeper.
In the 70th minute, Joston Pereira made it 4-0 when he beat the rival goalkeeper with a neat finish off a well measured cross from Johnny.
Substitute Richard Fernandes drove the last nail into rival coffin in the 85th minute.
Guardian Angel finished their engagement with 30 points from 14 matches while Goa Police ended with 13 points from 14 matches.
Johncy Fernandes, president of Guardian Angel Sports Club, hailed their superlative performance. “Winning the league title is like a dream come true for us. All credit goes to coach Severino Fernandes, who had put all the hard work in training and planning. I would like to dedicate the triumph to the people of Curchorem and club members,” an ecstatic Fernandes told Herald.
Meanwhile East Bengal team manager and former India midfielder Alvito D’ Cunha congratulated the team and stamped their class with superlative showing with 11 playing as one solid under stewardship of Johncy Fernandes.
At Rosary ground, Navelim, United Club of Telaulim registered a solitary goal victory over Curtorim Gymkahna 1-0. The all-important goal was scored by Daulat Dessai in the first half. With this win, United Club of Telaulim finished their engagement with 23 points from 14 matches while Curtorim Gymkhana finished on the second spot with 23 points from the same number of encounters.
At 3MTR ground, Navelim, Sao Miguel de Taleigao blanked Corps of Signals 2-0. All the goals came in the second half. Krishanath Shirodkar and Pramod Mardolkar were the goal scorers.
