red machines fail to break down panaji team as they are held to 1-1 draw at duler
the goan I network
PANAJI
Panjim Footballers and Churchill Brothers Sports Club played out a 1-1 draw in the Goa Football Association's Professional League at Duler Stadium in Mapusa, on Saturday evening. Velton D'Souza (1st minute) scored for Panjim Footballers while Israil Gurung levelled the score in the second half for the Red Machines.
Panjim Footballers stunned the I-League side when Mahesh Kumar shot from the edge of the box only to see the shot hit the crossbar. However, Velton, who was in the right place at the right time, tapped the ball into the net to give early lead to Panjim Footballers.
Churchill suffered a further setback, when in the 10th minute, striker Pankaj had to be substituted due to
an injury.
Churchill Bros. recovered slowly and tried a lot to get the equaliser. However, the Varca-based club were denied time and again by the rival defenders Shubert and Clive. After the Half-time interval, Churchill Bros brought in Alber Gonsalves and later substituted Arvind Silva for Valerio Rodrigues. The momentum was built for the Reds to equalise and they finally got the leveler when Selvon Cardozo sent in a beautiful cross to substitute Alber, who headed the ball for Israil to tap home from close range. Churchill missed another chance as substitute Valerio sent a pass to Joshuah in the box but the striker failed to place the ball past the rival keeper.
Coaches of both the sides were not happy to share the spoils.
"Two of our defenders were injured just before the goal and I didn't have time to replace the defenders. Churchill Bros took advantage of the situation and scored the equaliser," said Panjim Footballers coach.
Churchill Bros coach Alfred Fernandes was disappointed after his side conceded one of the quickest goals of the tournament.
"We conceded a silly goal at the start of the match which helped the Panaji side play confidently. We also lost our main striker initially in the game and hence we suffered a setback," he said.
"However in the second half we came back stronger and played better. With a couple of substitutions we were able to score the equaliser. We would have even taken home three points if we had not missed a couple of sitters at the fag end of the match," added Alfred, whose boys are preparing for the I-League 2017-18 expected to start in the last week of this month.
