Team Herald
MAPUSA: Guardian Angel Sports Club scored a comprehensive 5-0 win over struggling FC Bardez in the Goa Professional League match, organised by Goa Football Association, played at Duler Stadium, here on Wednesday.
Nicholas Rodrigues and Yakubu Mohammed scored in the first half, while Perryson Rebello, Abel Hammond and Nicolau Colaco netted in the second session for the South Goan club.
With this win, Angels climbed to 5th position with 23 points from 16 matches, while Bardez has 17 points from 18 matches.
Bardez made three changes to their side following a draw against Churchill Brothers in the last match as Viraj Naik, Gaurav Vaigankar and Lalbabu Matho were given a place in the starting XI, while the Curchorem team, who had drubbed Bardez in their last match chose to make no changes to their winning formula.
Bardez who were playing without their main defender Jessel Carneiro were lacking in the defence as Bardez’s last line made a blunder to clear Nigerian striker Yakubu Mohammed’s cross from the right, however, the host were lucky as the ball hit the goalpost before going out.
A few minutes later, another chance went abegging for Angels when Nicholas Rodrigues set up Aniston Fernandes with just Bardez keeper David Chauhan to beat the medio failed to control the ball.
However, in the 38th minutes, Angels took the lead when Nicholas’ sparkling shot from 35-yards hit the bottom of the crossbar and crashed inside the goal line before coming out, where linesman Savio Fernandes who was watching it closely confirmed the goal.
With just five more minutes, Angels added another to their tally through Yakubu as the Nigerian frontman calmly finished the ball in the net after receiving a long ball from Nicolau Colaco from the right flank.
Bardez had an opportunity to reduce their margin in the added time when Inacio Colaco found Stany Braganza in the box but the forward saw his header missed the target by a whisker.
On crossing over, Guardian Angels took just four minutes to inflate their lead as Clifton Dias made superb through pass to Perryson Rebello who covered some ground before finishing it in the back of the nylons to make it 3-0.
Defender Nicolau almost inflated Angels lead in the 72nd minutes when headed on the goal off Nicholas’ corner but Bardez keeper David nicely fisted it over the crossbar.
A few minutes later, Bardez defender Viraj brought down Yakubu in the box to give away the penalty kick to the opponents where just-in Ghanaian striker Abel Hammond scored from the spot.
Ten minutes later, Guardian Angels scored their fifth goal of the match through Nicolau as this time Bardez keeper David had no answer to defender’s header from close off Aniston’s well-taken corner.
