Mapusa
Though the first half was dominated by the Arambol outfit they squandered a few gilt-edged opportunities to score. The score-line at the breather suggested otherwise.
Goa Police made sporadic raids in the first half but converted a couple of them to lead 2-0 at the breather. They stung the Arambol defence as early as in the sixth minute with Swanand Naik making the rival citadel pay dearly for not falling in line. In the 13th minute, Holy Cross could have restored parity when Jason Fernandes advanced on the right flank and had Goa Police’s Swanand deflect the ball in the path of young attacker Dalesh Pednekar who muffed up the chance.
Holy Cross continued to grow into the game with repeated forays in the Goa Police box. In the 21st minute, Arambol’s Jason on a good run on the right flank was tackled in time by Goa Police’s defender Dinesh Anonkar from the corner of the six yard box. Three minutes hence, Goa Police’s Swanand rolled the ball towards his goalkeeper whose casualness resulted only to a corner.
Just before the half an hour mark, Holy Cross’ Dalesh laid the ball in the path of Shashank Ashwekar but the Goa Police goalkeeper scrambled the ball away to a corner. In the 31st minute, fate willed against Holy Cross’ young Dalesh whose ball interception from Jeramia resulted in his ensuing strike hitting the top centre of the horizontal and to safety. Goa Police having sustained relentless pressure held on to their slender 1-0 lead as they tried to take the fight back to the opposition. Goa Police’s Abdul Khan on the 37th minute attempted on target from the left corner outside the rival six-yard box was parried away to safety by the Arambol custodian. In the very next minute, Dalesh was a culprit for Holy Cross yet again when a cross from Jeramia was shot wide from a handshaking distance.
Goa Police doubled their lead in the 41st minute with the skilful Gulrez Khan made a mazy run in the opponent’s half and had the Arambol custodian fumble with the ball to beat the only defender Jayesh Chopdekar before converting.
Shortly after resumption, Holy Cross struck back with vengeance when Dinesh Amonkar from central midfield made a great delivery for Dalesh to score and reduce the margin to 1-2. But Goa Police had upped their ante in the second half, scoring few minutes hence, when on the 54th minute Sachin Chopdekar’s first attempt was deflected off the Arambol keeper which fell in the path of their tireless captain, Milind Shinde increased their lead to 3-1.
Not to be outdone at a shade under an hour of play, Holy Cross struck back with Dalesh finding his scoring boots again with the side trailing by a goal again. Goa Police could have easily secured a two-goal buffer two minutes later, but their substitute Shaikh Saliya missed from close range.
In the 64th minute, Holy Cross levelled scores at 3-3 with Shashank scoring on the second attempt after the initial shot of Dalesh was gloved away by the Goa Police goalkeeper. As the game wore on with intensity and vigour, Arambol had a fan base as their 12th player as an added incentive to egg them on. Finally, on the 69th minute, Goa Police’s Sachin Chopdekar’s pass to Abdul Khan found the latter eluding the substitute Holy Cross defender Nevil Rodrigues to strike home and once again secure the lead at 4-3. Goa Police sealed the issue in the 80th minute off Suleman Shaik who made no mistake and secure a 5-3 win.
