Team Herald
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
MAPUSA: St. Anthony’s SC, Marna overcame a stiff challenge from Cunchelim SC to register a 2-1 win in the ninth and final league match of GFA’s 2nd Division league, at Duler stadium, here, on Friday.
With Friday’s win, St. Anthony’s Marna have booked their place in the play-offs with 18 points while Cunchelim staring as relegation have 8 points.
All the goals came in the first session with Vipul Pednekar and Sadanand Verenkar scoring for Marna while Mahableshwar Thanekar was on target for Cunchelim.
Marna needing a win to qualify for the play-offs started on the front foot and did not take them long to get the opening goal which came in the 10th minute through Vipul Pednekar who finished clinically after being put through by Sangam Pednekar to give his side the lead.
Marna who held the major share of proceedings could not make it count as Mayuresh twice failed to get the better of Cunchelim keeper in one-to-one situation.
Marna finally managed to get their second goal in the 32nd minute, Kashiram`s clever pass found Sadanand Verenkar who controlled the ball and drilled a low shot past the keeper to make it 2-0.
Down by two goals, Cunchelim did not lose hope and nearly got a goal back but Mahableshwar`s firm shot just went inches wide off the target.
Cunchelim were rewarded with a goal for their persistence in the 45th minute when Mahableshwar`s fierce shot was well blocked by keeper Vinit and the ball rolled to Mahableshwar who this time made no mistake in finding the net to make it 2-1.
Changing ends, Cunchelim tried their best to get back into the match but could not find a way past the Marna defense who stood resolute until the final whistle.
In between Marna had a decent chance to wrap up the match with the third goal but Cunchelim keeper Dinesh brought a superlative save to stop Sadanand Dabholkar’s powerful shot from entering the goal.
