MARGAO/ DABOLIM: A fine header from man of the match Romeo Fernandes powered Dempo Sports Club to a 1-0 win over East Bengal in Group A League encounter of 36th Federation Cup football championship at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda on Monday .
The home team stamped their authority early in the game and kept Armando Colaco’s boys on their toes.
Dempo could have surged ahead in the 15th minute but East Bengal goalkeeper Subhashish Roy Chowdhury palmed away Mandar Rao Dessai’s rasping left-footer and later, Romeo’s blazing right-footer was blocked by the East Bengal goalkeeper.
East Bengal were at the receiving end but Dempo goalkeeper Laxmikant Kattimani rose to the occasion to block rival striker Dudu Omagbemi’s pile driver.
The all-important goal came in the 40th minute when winger Romeo headed home from inside the six-yard box with the rival defence caught napping off a Tolagy Ozbey delivery.
Changing ends, Dempo started in same vein and conjured four scoring opportunities but striker Tolgay was the offender as he muffed sitter after sitter.
Midway, East Bengal added more pace and power with well-orchestrated moves but Kattimani came to his side’s rescue after thwarting Leonidas Beros and Ranty Martins.
Meanwhile, the Federation Trophy which was in custody of defending champions Churchill Brothers Sports Club, arrived quietly at the venue, late in the evening.
Our Dabolim correspondent adds: Pune FC came from behind to get the better of Shillong Lajong FC 3-1, at Tilak Maidan, Vasco.
Anthony D’Souza (45th), Arata Izumi (66th) and Eric Brown scored for Pune FC while Lalrammuana had given Shillong the lead in the 16th minute.
With both the teams entailing a win, it was Shillong Lajong who took the best chance as the Pune side were trying to establish themselves. Lalrammuana collected the ball in the opposition penalty area and clearly slotted home giving no room for the rival keeper.
Down by a goal, the Karim Bencherifa coached team upped the ante grabbing a couple of corners in the next few minutes. They broke the stubborn Lajong defence and equalized in the additional time through Anthony D’Souza’s left-footer after receiving an excellent through ball from Arata.
Crossing over, Shillong were totally outplayed as Pune showed better composure and took the lead in the 66th minute.
Eric Brown sent in a defence splitting through ball to Anthony, whose shot was blocked by the rival custodian but the ball rebounded to Arata, who made it 2-1.
Eric was rewarded for his hard work with a goal in the added time.
