the goan I network
DULER
Santa Cruz Club of Cavelossim struggled before they managed to score a hard-fought 1-0 win over Panjim Footballers in a 20th round match of Goa Professional League, organised by Goa Football Association, at Duler Stadium, here on Thursday. Samson Simoes scored the all important goal at the hour mark.
After the victory, Cavelossim have 11 points from 15 matches, while Panjim stay on 15 points from 17 matches.
Cavelossim coach Severino Fernandes, after having drawn their last league match against Sporting Clube de Goa, started with Rohan Kamble and Perryson Fernandes. At the other end, Panjim coach Savio Vaz made two changes to his side following a narrow defeat at the hands of Calangute Association in the last match as defender Clive Miranda and midfielder Prisco Moura made into the playing XI of the capital city side.
Panjim should have opened their account early in the match when Akeraj Martins found Kunal Kundaikar in the box with a curling cross but the striker failed to direct his free header on target. In the very next minute, Cavelossim striker Perryson Fernandes saw his strike in a one-to-one situation from inside the box being superbly blocked by Panjim keeper Gurpreet Singh.
At the other end in the 23rd minute, Panjim’s Sachidanand Satelkar snatched the ball from a Cavelossim defender but his powerful strike was pushed for a corner by Cavelossim
custodian Razak Devsor with a full stretched diving save. In the last ten minutes of the first session, Cavelossim had two close chances to take the lead. Darren Fernandes shot wide from point-blank range off Mathew Colaco’s cut-back from inside the box, while in the injury time Panjim defender Prasil Kankonkar came with a goal-line clearance to stop Mathew’s goal-bound header off Moises D’Sa corner from entering the goal.
On crossing ends, Cavelossim coach Severino brought on Samson Simoes from the bench, replacing U-20 striker Perryson Fernandes and the substitution paid dividends. Just fifteen minutes after he came on, Samson gave Cavelossim the lead when Rohan sent an intelligent through pass in the box to Samson, who covered some ground and placed the ball into back of the nylons.
Cavelossim had another chance to extend their lead when Moises, dribbling past a host of defenders, latched on a right-footer at the goal which was smartly blocked by keeper Gurpreet and the ball rolled to Samson but the striker failed to connect it. In the closing stages of the match, Cavelossim had another glorious chance to add another goal when substitute Ralf Fernandes shot from top of the box but keeper Gurpreet made a fine save to limit the damage.
