Team Herald
DULER: Sporting Clube de Goa demolished Churchill Bros SC 4 -0 in their first match of the Goa Professional league, at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Tuesday.
When the two teams met a week ago in the Police Cup, Flaming Orange had hammered Churchill by a similar score.
Sporting Clube completely outplayed the Red Machines in every department.
Basant Rai of Churchill Bros opened the score line for Sporting with an own goal in the 24th minute, while Cajetan Fernandes (41’) Glan Martins (63’) and Victorino Fernandes (74’) got on the score sheet for Sporting Clube.
The initial quarter saw a fairly balanced play with both managing a handful of half chances at either ends.
Churchill had an early setback as they had to make a substitution in the very 1st minute of play, brining in Nash Pereira in place of Aldrich Coelho, who was viciously tackled by Sporting Shawn Noronha.
Couple of minutes later Joyner Lourenco set up Victorino Fernandes inside the danger zone, but Churchill keeper Ricardo Cardozo came with a timely save before any damage was done.
It was in the 24th minute that a heavy clearance from Loveday Eninnaya found Victorino at the front who pushed for the goal, however the Churchill Bros defender Basant Rai made a dash clearing the ball into his own nets.
Churchill could have wiped out the deficit in the next minute itself however Nash Pereira was a wee bit late to tap in Nicholas Fernandes cross.
In the 41st minute Sporting Clube won a free kick about 35 yards off the nets, Cajetan Fernandes stood up and slotted the ball into the top right corner giving the keeper no chance.
The score stayed 2–0 in favour of Sporting Clube at the half time.
Crossing over, Sporting Clube picked up where they left off as Gaffer Mateus Costa introduced Seriton Fernandes which proved to be effective as the winger combined with Victorino well while Churchill Bros defence found it further hard to contain Sporting Clube’s pace.
In the 63rd minute Glan Martins latched on to a loose ball in a thickly populated box to beat his marker and drill in a powerful shot making it 3-0.
Gaffer Costa quickly got Martins out and introduced Ganesh Thakur who set up Victorino for a photo finish serving the ball right into the slot for the latter to make it 4 -0 in the 74th minute.
In injury time Sporting Clube should have netted in two more goal, however Churchill custodian Ricardo managed to keep Seriton Fernandes and Cajetan Fernandes’s efforts at bay.
With this win Sporting climb on top of the Goa Pro League table with a healthy goal difference.
