Dempo keep their title hopes alive with a win over Bardez

Dempo reduced the gap with Sporting Clube de Goa at top 

Defenders Joliston Rebello and Krishnanath Shirodkar scored an own goal as FC Bardez went down to Dempo Sports Club by 2-0 in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today.

With today’s win, Dempo has 31 points from 14 matches, while Bardez remained at 8th position with 15 points from 13 matches.

Bardez who lost to Sporting Clube de Goa in their previous round match had few changes as Krishnanath Shirodkar, Micky Vaz, Lalbabu Matho, Clinton Niasso and Joliston Rebello found their names in the starting XI, whereas Dempo  also had few changes to their side after a sharing points against Panjim Footballers in the last match as Beevan D’Mello and Nestor Dias were back, while their coach Samir Naik also gave the first start to defender Olan Chandran in the absence of their regular full-back Nickson Castanha.  

Dempo should have taken the lead in the very third minutes of the match when Joaquim Abranches sent a through pass to Kapil Hoble in the box but the winger failed to get on the ball.

However, in the 20th minutes, the Golden Eagles surged ahead when Bardez defender Joliston headed in their own goal in the process of clearing Latesh Mandrekar’s cross in the box to make it 1-0 for the opponents.

A few minutes later, Dempo had another chance when Beevan D’Mello set up Kapil at the edge of the box but the winger saw his powerful striker missed the target by a whisker.

Bardez also had a chance to equalise in the 36th minutes when Clinton Niasso found his teammate Inacio Colaco with a header pass but the midfielder failed to control his header from the 6yard box.

With just few seconds left to the half-time, a golden opportunity came into Bardez way when Clinton made superb run and squared it to Micky but his shot was brilliantly blocked by Dempo keeper Agnelo Gomes, the ball later rolled to Clinton who found the net with a neat tap but the striker failed to beat the offside trap as the goal was overruled by the linesman. 

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On changing the side, Dempo once again came close to scoring in the 47th minutes when Desmon Pereira’s goalbound cross from the left hit the keeper gloves and crossbar before going out for a corner.

At the other end, Bardez almost scored an equaliser on the counter-attack as Ronil Azavedo covered some ground and tried his luck from distance but his goal-bound shot was nicely fisted over the crossbar by Dempo keeper Agnelo.

In the last few minutes of the match, Dempo once again marched on the rivals when substitute Suraj Hadkonkar sent a trough pass to Joaquim in the box but the striker’s grounder went just wide.

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Two minutes later, Dempo doubled their lead when Suraj’s superb cross was headed in their own goal by Bardez defender Krishnanath to cement opponent’s victory.

Dempo had the best chance to score from their player’s boot in the added time when Beevan danced past Bardez keeper David Chauhan twice and cut back it to unmarked Joaquim in the box but the forward shot sky-high instead of just tapping it in the empty goal.