MARGAO
Sporting Clube de Goa thumped Corps of Signals 6-1 in a Goa Pro League encounter on Sunday at 3 MTR Grounds, Navelim.
Selwyn Miranda (3’) put the Corps ahead early in the match while Daryl Costa (10’), Cajetan Fernandes (52’ & 57’), Francis Dadzie (60’), Mauvin Borges (65’) & Victorino Fernandes (72’) got their names on the score sheet for Sporting. With this win Sporting consolidate their third position on the table with 18 points from 8 matches, trailing the leaders by a point while having two games in hand.
Sporting gaffer Mateus Costa made wholesale changes to the side that drew against Guardian Angel on Tuesday. Clemente Joseph, Ravi Kumar, Cajetan Fernandes, Harpreet Singh, Seriton Fernandes and Daryl Costa made the cut this time as Costa played a 4-2-3-1 formation with Dadzie leading the attack.
Sporting started off on the wrong foot when a horrible mix-up between the defence and goalkeeper Ravi Kumar saw Selwyn Miranda latch on to a corner kick and put it in the nets to give Corps a dream start. Their happiness however was cut short with a brilliant strike from the young Daryl
Costa who got hold of a loose ball about 35 yards away from the nets to put it perfectly into the top right corner, giving the keeper no chance to get Sporting back on level terms. Barring Sporting’s Dadzie who had a few decent chances towards the end of first half, rest of it saw both sides put up a solid defensive performance as it remained 1-1 at the halfway mark.
The second half saw Costa make some decisive substitutions in form of Mauvin Borges and Victorino Fernandes who proved to be instrumental in taking the game away from the Corps. Cajetan Fernandes, who featured in the starting XI after about a month’s injury, opened the floodgates for Sporting with a good strike from the edge of the box in the 52nd minute.
In less than 5 minutes, Cajetan once again found himself in the right place when the Corps defender made a mess of a well directed cross from Seriton Fernandes at the right flank. Cajetan placed the
ball in the lower right corner beating everyone in a thickly flooded box making it 3-1.
At the hour mark, after missing a few opportunities earlier, Francis Dadzie finally found himself on the score sheet with a fantastic header off a Harpreet Singh cross to take the scoreline to 4-1 for Sporting. Mauvin Borges added the fifth goal with a clean strike after receiving a beautiful through ball from Harpreet in the 65th minute.
Cajetan had an opportunity to score his hat-trick in the 72nd minute but his freekick hit the woodwork but the rebound went straight to Victorino who made no mistake in putting it past the keeper, making it 6-1 for Sporting.
