MAPUSA
Salgaocar Football Club registered a hard-fought 1-0 win over Santa Cruz Club of Cavelossim in the seventh round match of the Goa Professional League organised by GFA, at Duler stadium, here on Tuesday. The all important goal of the match came from the header off Leny Pereira in the 39th minute of the first session.
SCC Cavelossim coach Severino Fernandes made just one change in his starting line-up as he started with Rohan Kamble, after having won their fifth round match against Vasco Sports Club and the postponement of their sixth match. At the other end, Salgaocar in-charge Norbert Gonsalves, after his team had drawn against Guardian Angel, brought three changes at the start by giving debut to Sourabh Patil (defender) and S Rajini Kumar (goalkeeper), and bringing back Umesh Harijan.
It was total domination from the Salgaocar colts that time and again raided the rival citadel. In the third minute, Gilbert Oliveira sent a perfect long ball to U-20 player Devendra Murgaonkar, who failed to control the ball inside the penalty box. After some probing, once again Devendra's strike from inside the penalty box hit a Cavelossim defender before it went for a corner.
Four minutes later, Devendra was back in action but his goal-bound shot was brilliantly saved by Cavelossim keeper Siddesh Morje. Cavelossim had just one good attempt at the goal, where Allwyn Vaz sent a square pass to Moises D'Sa outside the penalty box, but the latter shot over the crossbar. Finally in the 39th minute, the Green Brigade surged ahead. A neat corner by Mackroy Peixote was firmly headed into the goal by Leny Pereira, 1-0.
On resumption of play, Cavelossim's Semson Fernandes' scorching shot was saved by goalkeeper S Rajini Kumar. In the 51st minute, Salgaocar had two back-to-back chances to inflate the lead off perfect crosses from Harmanjot Singh to Devendra, but the first was cleared by Cavelossim's Sarabjit while the next saw Devendra fail to head the ball on target. At the other end, Cavelossim's Mathew Colaco's shot at the goal was brilliantly saved by keeper S Rajini Kumar.
As the match progressed, two more opportunities to increase the lead were squandered by the Green Brigade. A perfect cross by Gilbert Oliveira saw Joel Sunday tap the ball wide with only the rival keeper to beat and, minutes later, once again Joel headed the ball wide off a Gilbert cross.
In the 69th minute, a well executed free kick by Semson Fernandes was pushed to safety with a full stretched diving save by keeper S Rajini Kumar. In the closing stages of the match Joel Sunday -- collecting a pass from Brian Mascarenhas -- darted inside the penalty box and smashed a grounder which went just past the goal post.
