DULER: Salgaocar Football Club maintained their spot on the top of the GFA’s Goa Professional League table after their solitary goal win over Sporting Clube de Goa, played at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Saturday.
With today’s win Salgaocar stand with 36 points from 15 matches while Sporting stay at 32 points from 15 matches.
The teams seemed in no hurry to break the deadlock and restricted play to the midfield for major portion of the first half.
Defenders of both the sides did a commendable job to cut off the few moves that were created in the bud itself.
The best chance that Salgaocar FC created in the first half was in the 35th minute of play when their foreign import Kamo Stephane Bayi on getting his way past the Sporting Clube defenders set up Liston Colaco right inside the penalty area however the striker’s placement was cleared to safety by the rival defender Clemente Joseph.
A minute before the half-time whistle Mackroy Peixoto sent a long floater right into the heart of the Sporting Clube’s danger zone which was beautifully controlled by James Fernandes, however before he could take a crack at the goal Ponif Vaz cleared the ball to safety.
On resumption of play the teams were once again cautious in their attacking front and resorted to midfield tactics.
Sporting Clube have themselves to blame for today’s loss as they failed to score from open goal scoring opportunities time and again.
In the 60th minute Shawn Noronha sent in a long ball from the defence to unmarked Seriton Fernandes who failed to get his feet to the ball.
Five minutes later Victorino got hold of the ball from Ponif who on charging into the Salgaocar danger zone blasted the ball wide to the dismay of Sporting Clube supporters.
Salgaocar FC on the other hand looked much sharper in their attack where in the 69th minute Mackroy Peixoto sent a through ball to Kamo Stephane Bayi whose blistering shot was kept away by the diving Sporting keeper Ravi Kumar.
In the 80th Liston Colaco set the ball on platter to Kamo Stephane Bayi who shot was blocked by Sporting defender Clemente.
The only goal of the match was scored in the 85th minute of play when Leny Pereira set up Kamo Stephane Bayi whose shot was blocked by the defender only to see Liston Colaco who was lurking nearby fire the ball home to give his team a 1-0 win.
