MAPUSA: Salgaocar Football Club continued their fine form as they hammered Corps of Signals by a 5-0 margin in the Goa Professional League match, organised by Goa Football Association and played under the floodlights, at Duler Stadium, here on Sunday.
Salgaocar have 29 points from 16 outings, while Signals have 18 points from 20 matches.
Following their defeat in the last match against Dempo SC, Signals manager Major VS Kamble made two changes bringing in U-20 Rudresh Mandrekar and Pawan Thakur in the line-up, while Salgaocar gaffer Norbert Gonsalves chose to go with the same XI which earned him full points against Vasco SC in the last match.
Signals had a glorious chance to stun the defending champions in the 10th minute when Pawan found unmarked Harshad Thube in the goal-mouth but the midfielder fumbled with the ball as the Salgaocar keeper S Rajini Kumar easily collected his weak shot.
In the next minute, Salgaocar also had a chance to surge ahead but Nigerian striker Joel Sunday headed over the crossbar from close off Stephen Alvares’ corner.
A few minutes later, Salgaocar midfielder Umesh Harijan was lucky to escape without even a warning from the referee Rohidas Bhomkar when he elbowed Roshan Singh in the face but the referee Bhomkar who also consulted assistant referee Sainath Haldankar overlooked the situation.
The Green Brigade finally opened their tally in the 35th minute when skipper Gilbert Oliveira made no mistake to tap the ball home from goal-mouth to Sanson Pereira’s low cross from the deep left flank to make it 1-0 for his side.
Four minutes later, Sanson doubled the lead for Salgaocar when he made an easy tap in the goal from 6-yards after his teammate U-20 Devendra Murgaonkar failed to put the ball in the net off Stephen’s fine cross from the right wing to make it 2-0 for the Green Brigade.
Signals started the second session on an attacking note and made a swift attack on the rivals when Roshan made a darting run and made a short pass to U-20 striker Rudresh who tried his luck from the edge of the box only to see it easily collected by Salgaocar keeper Rajini.
At the hour mark, Salgaocar U-20 striker Devendra who was consistent with his goals had a chance to extend their lead when he was left with just Signals keeper Binu Purushothama to beat but the custodian came off his line to deny the striker.
However, in the 65th minute, the U-20 striker made no mistake to head the ball into the net from close off Mackroy Peixote’s fine cross from the right flank.
Energised by goals, Salgaocar added another in the 71st minute through Nigerian striker Sunday as he smartly tapped the ball at the far post after receiving a floater pass from skipper Gilbert to make it 4-0 for the Green Brigade.
A few minutes before, the Army men striker Roshan saw his powerful shot from inside the box hit the far post before going into the hands of keeper Rajini.
In the closing stage of the match, Signals keeper Binu came up with two excellent saves as he first denied Gilbert’s powerful strike from inside, while he stretched to his limit in the last minute to block substitute Agnelo Colaco’s fierce shot from the top of the box.
However, in the added minutes, Agnelo Colaco’s bullet shot from the 20-yard free-kick directly entered the net to make it 5-0 to register another massive victory for the Green Brigade.
