PANJIM: Dempo Sports Club and Salgaocar FC shared the spoils in a goalless draw to remain in relegation zone in the Hero I-League match at Nehru stadium, Fatorda, on Wednesday.
The start of the match was marred by a farce, as a delay due to the non-arrival of a doctor saw the match kick-off atleast 15 minutes past the stipulated time to kick-off. Three changes were evident in Trevor Morgan’s Dempo starting line-up, as Nirmal Chettri returned from suspension and replaced the injured Debabrata Roy, while Pronay Halder and Sushil Singh started in place of Lenny Rodrigues and Holicharan Narzary.
Salgaocar’s Derrick Pereira made just one change as Khaled Hasan Baleid was replaced by Gilbert Oliveira.
With hypothetical six-points at stake, both the teams needed to get off on the right foot. It was Salgaocar who made the first shot at target as Duffy’s strike from distance, as set-up by Lamare, found itself easily into Kattimani’s hands.
Karanjit Singh, in The Greens’ goal, was called into action by Pronay Halder. The Salgaocar keeper parried the shot from about 30 yards out with the rebound falling for Ozbey. However, the Australian was flagged off-side. The pace of the match was going back and forth as Douhou Pierre put Gurjinder through on goal. The latter’s shot didn’t dip enough to find the target, though.
The 35th minute saw Peter Carvalho’s header from inside the box, off a Samir Naik cross from the right, go agonisingly wide of the left post, as both seems prodded for an opener. Just two minutes later, Salgaocar responded through Douhou, as Duffy was stopped in his tracks by a swarm of Dempo defenders. The ball fell at the Ivorian’s feet and as he took aim from the right, it went well wide of the far post.
The last notable chance of the half came to Ozbey as his left footed effort, though produced by a corner, was well saved by Karanjit in Salgaocar’s goal.
The second half got off to an identical start as the first with Douhou missing a set-piece opportunity, shirking the ball wide of the far post. Then, Samir Naik needed to be red alert as Gilbert Oliviera’s neatly threaded through ball saw Jairu on his bike. However, the veteran defender’s defensive covering saw the chance die down quickly.
With chances coming sporadically, Halder smashed a shot just wide, with Karanjit having to dive to make sure the ball went out of play. Ozbey was a goal threat but couldn’t make his presence count as he failed to control balls from the left and right wings.
Dempo were cranking up the pressure and it was Alywn George’as chance to hold his head in his hands a he headed wide of Karanjit’s left post, off a Francis Fernandes cross from the right. The 72nd minute saw Karanjit block a feeble shot by Jewel Raja, who initially received the ball after Francis cut it back for his team-mate.
With the game dwindling down to its final pitch, the 81st minute saw Douhou’s claiming for a handball against Rowilson, who cleared the Salgaocar attacker’s shot on target, after he had beaten Kattimani following a long ball from Jairu, waved away by the referee.
The 84th minute was probably the most defining stage of the match as Karanjit of The Greens made a brilliant left handed save of a rasping shot by Ozbey, from a free-kick that speared through the wall.
The 89th minute was probably compounding for Ozbey, who picked Narzary’s pass from the left inside the Salgaocar box and tried to lob the ball above Karanjit from an acute angle. The ball dinked the crossbar and headed out for a goal kick. The night would get even worse for the FC Goa striker, who saw his effort from a Narzary cut-back, in the box, go wide despite the keeper for The Greens being nowhere near to make a save.
The referee brought the curtains down on this stingy affair after 93 minutes that produced no goals and a result that saw Salgaocar remain rooted to the bottom of the table in 11th place, whilst Dempo climbed over Bharat FC in 10th place, to go ninth.
