DULER: Salgaocar Football Club outclassed Vasco Sports Club with a thrashing 7-1 score line in the Port Town derby match of the Goa Professional League, organised by Goa Football Association and played at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Thursday.
Nigerian striker Joel Sunday scored four goals while U-20 forward Devendra Murgaonkar, Gilbert Oliveira, and Umesh Harijan scored a goal each for the Green Brigade. Franky Oliveiro scored the consolation goal for the Port Towners.
With this win, Salgaocar has 26 points from 15 matches, while Vasco are struggling in the bottom half of the table with just 20 points from the same number of matches.
Vasco coach Eban Mesquita made two changes following their 4-2 win over Panjim Footballers in the last round match as Schubert Pereira and Godfray Mascarenhas were back in the starting XI, whereas, Salgaocar coach Norbert Gonsalves brought in Joaquim Carvalho making the only change to his side which thrashed Santa Cruz Club of Cavelossim by 8-3 in their last match.
Salgaocar had a great start to the match, as they took just four minutes to open their account when Sanson Pereira’s strike hit the side post and landed into the feet of unmarked Nigerian forward Joel Sunday who made no mistake from the 6 yards to tap the ball home to put his side ahead.
In just 40 seconds from the first goal the Green Brigade added the second goal to their tally as Mackroy Peixote’s goal bound shot from the top deflected off Vasco’s defender Myran Pereira and found Salgaocar U-20 striker Devendra Murgaonkar who shot past Vasco keeper Amit Biswas from close to make it 2-0 for his side.
Vasco also had few raids on the opponents but most of their moves were killed before entering the final third due to miss passing, while some were cleared by Salgaocar’s last line.
Devendra had another chance to increase their lead in the 32nd minute when Mackroy Peixote found him in the goalmouth with a fine cross but the striker headed wide.
However, the Green Brigade were successful to break the Vasco defence once again in the closing stage of the first session when Sunday nicely jelled up with Devendra who made a darting run from the halfway line and released the ball to Nigerian striker who slotted it into the empty net to take his side into strong position at the half-time.
On crossing over, Salgaocar took just eight minutes to further increase their lead as skipper Gilbert Oliveira made a clinical finish from inside the box.
A few minutes later, Salgaocar came with another chance but Sunday saw his shot rebound off the crossbar where Devendra’s header from close went over the crossbar.
Vasco reduced their margin in the 65th minutes when Flan Gomes set up Franky Oliveiro with a through pass who brilliantly shot past Salgaocar keeper S. Rajini Kumar from inside the box to make it 4-1 for Vasco.
Salgaocar added three more goals in the last quarter of the match as first Sunday completed his hat-trick in the 72nd minute when he smartly headed in off Mackroy’s perfect cross, while, two minutes later, Umesh Harijan’s powerful strike from outside the box made it 6-1 for Salgaocar.
Nigerian forward Sunday scored his fourth and team’s seventh goal in the 83rd minute when he nicely curled the ball in the net from the top of the box making it 7-1 for the Green Brigade.
