Team Herald
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DULER: Salgaocar Football Club registered their third consecutive win as they edged past Guardian Angel Sports Club 1-0 in the Goa Professional League match organised by Goa Football Association and played at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Thursday.
U-20 striker Devendra Murgaonkar scored the only goal of the match in the 28th minute.
With today’s win, Salgaocar climbed to 3rd position with 20 points from 13 outings while Guardian Angel remained at 6th position with 17 points from 13 matches.
Salgaocar coach Norbert Gonsalves made only one change to his side which eased past Calangute Association in the last match as defender Assumption Soares made the first start of the season for the Green Brigade.
Whereas, Guardian Angel who lost to Vasco SC in the last match also had a change as Nicholas Rodrigues made the comeback, while their coach Riston Rodrigues also brought in Sanwil D’Costa in the playing XI.
Salgaocar started on an attacking note and came close to scoring in the 15th second of the match when Gilbert Oliveira sent a perfect cross in the box where onrushing winger Assumption saw his header missed the target by inches.
Guardian Angel also had two potent chances in the first 20 minutes but first Rayman Fernandes’ power-pack shot from the top of the rebounded off goalpost with every opponent beaten, while a few minutes later, Salgaocar keeper S. Rajini came with a diving save to deny Clifton Dias’ curling shot.
At the other end, U-20 striker Devendra continued his fine form as he scored in third consecutive match to put Salgaocar ahead in the 28th minutes when Guardian Angel defender Nicolau Colaco failed to clear Gilbert’s low cross, taking advantage of the same, Devendra made an easy tap-in from close to make it 1-0 for the Green Brigade.
Post resumption, Guardian Angel should have equalised in the 47th minutes when their Joval Fernandes sent a through pass to Perryson Rebello in the box but the striker failed to beat the keeper from his last touch as keeper Rajini collected the ball.
In the last quarter of the match, Salgaocar came with series of attacks but first Mackroy Peixote’s powerful shot missed the target by few inches while substitute Samuel Costa’s shot went just over the crossbar.
A few minutes later, Devendra had a chance to register his third consecutive brace when he was set up by Nigerian striker Joel Sunday but the striker failed to control his shot from just inside the box.
Another chance came into Salgaocar’s way in the added time when Sunday once again came with a brilliant pass to unmarked Samuel who covered some ground and beat the Angels keeper Ram Sroop with a placement but his attempt went just wide.
