MAPUSA: Vasco Sports Club registered a hard-fought 2-1 win over Guardian Angel Sports Club in the Goa Professional League match, organised by Goa Football Association, played at Duler Stadium, on Monday.
Angels coach Riston Rodrigues made no changes to his side which won against Corps of Signals in the last match. On the other hand, Vasco boss Eban Mesquita gave the start to newly signed Nigerian forward John Nuanna and Guinean midfielder Vassesa Toure, benching Sherwin Lobo and Deryl Endro, while their centre defender Micky Fernandes continued to miss the match due to a hamstring injury.
Vasco had the best chance in the 8th minute when Nigerian Nuanna tried his luck from the inside the box after receiving a short pass from Stephen Colaco but Angel keeper Jeet Gupta made an excellent save to deny the striker.
In the 12th minute, Angels’ skipper Nicholas Rodrigues found Alson Fernandes with a well-directed corner but Alson failed to control his tap as the ball went wide from 6-yards box.
In the very next minute, Nigerian striker Abel Hammond had the best chance to take his side on a lead but his strike from the edge of the box just went over the crossbar.
In the last few minutes of the first half, the Port Towners tried to control the game with continuous attacking. In one of these, Godfrey Mascarenhas missed a sitter from the goalmouth as he headed wide from handshaking distance with Angels keeper Jeet completely out of position.
One more chance came into their way in the 43rd minute when Clive Coelho’s deflected cross from inside the box found Stephen with just the keeper to beat but the striker failed to connect it as the ball went out for a corner.
However, Guinean Toure made no mistake to find the net with a neat header off Minesh Kunkolkar’s resulting corner, making it 1-0 for Vasco.
On changing the side, Angels came out stronger and took just six minutes to find the equaliser where substitute Perryson Rebello cut past a defender to enter the box and sent a powerful grounder which ended up in the back of the nylons restoring the parity for the Curchorem club.
However, it was just more ten minutes past on the clock when Vasco once again took the lead. This time Toure nicely jelled up with Nigerian Nuanna before making darting run from the centre and drilled the powerful shot which finished in the net making it 2-1 for Vasco.
In the dying minutes of the match, Angels had few more chances to put the terms Suresh Lamani cleared Myron Borges’ cross in the box, while a few minutes later Suresh once again came up with a brilliant block to stop Nicholas Rodrigues’ 25-yarder. A minute later, Perryson had the best chance to score the equaliser but his placement from inside the box hit the side post and went out for a goal-kick.
Vasco also had a chance to increase their lead but Beneston Barretto and Stephen shot wide from inside the box. In the added time, Perryson once was once again in the action when he was left with just the keeper to beat but the Vasco keeper Suresh cleared the danger to book their first three points of the league.
