DULER: Santa Cruz Club of Cavelossim registered a hard-fought 1-0 win over Panjim Footballers in the Goa Professional League match organised by Goa Football Association and played at Duler Stadium, on Thursday.
Samson Simoes came off the bench to score the all-important goal at the hour mark.
With this win, Cavelossim has 11 points from 15 matches, while Panjim had 15 points from 17 matches.
Cavelossim coach Severino Fernandes made changes to his side which drew with league leader Sporting Clube de Goa in the last round match as Rohan Kamble and Perryson Fernandes found their names in the playing XI, whereas Panjim coach Savio Vaz made two changes to his side following a narrow defeat at the hands of Calangute Association in the last match as defender Clive Miranda and midfielder Prisco Moura made into the playing XI of the Capital city side.
Akeraj Martins had a great opportunity to take Panjim into the lead in the 10th minutes when he was fed by Kunal Kundaikar in the box with a curling cross from the left but the striker failed to keep his free header on target.
The very next minute, Cavelossim striker Perryson dangerously moved inside the box but his shot was excellently blocked by Panjim keeper Gurpreet Singh in one-on-one.
Panjim once again came close to scoring in the 23rd minutes when Sachidanand Satelkar snatched the ball from Cavelossim defender but his powerful strike was divingly pushed for a corner by Cavelossim custodian Razak Devsor.
Cavelossim had another chance to take the lead but this time Darren Fernandes shot wide from point-blank range off Mathew Colaco’s cut-back pass from inside the box.
In the closing stage of the first session, Panjim defender Prasil Kankonkar came with a goal-line clearance to Mathew’s goal-bound header off Moises D’Sa corner as both the teams entered the dressing room with goalless at the half-time.
Cavelossim coach Severino replaced U-20 striker Perryson with Samson Simoes at the half-time and the striker delivered within 15 minutes off coming in as he put Cavelossim in to the lead in the 60th minute. Rohan sent a brilliant through pass to Samson in the box who later covered some ground and placed the ball neatly at back of the net.
Cavelossim had a chance to inflate their lead when Moises made drifting run cutting past a defender and shot on the goal but his powerful strike was nicely blocked by keeper Gurpreet, the ball rolled to Samson but the striker failed to connect to it.
In the dying minutes of the match, Cavelossim had another opportunity when substitute Ralf Fernandes went for the glory from top of the box but keeper Gurpreet made a fine save to limit the damage.
