Fighting Guardian go down to Calangute in the Goa Pro League

The North Goa club moved to second in the table...

Salim Mohammed scored the only goal of the match for Calangute Association as they registered a narrow 1-0 win over Guardian Angel Sports Club in the Goa Professional League match played at Ambelim Ground yesterday. Calangute are in fantastic form as they were unbeaten in their last seven matches. In the last match, they easily defeated bottom club Vasco SC. While Guardian have become giant killers since the arrival of former Churchill star Mickey Fernandes. The Savordem-based club were also undefeated their last seven matches. The Calangute coach Valentine Ezeugo made two changes to his side as Olan Channdran replaced injured Melvin Lobo, whereas Sunny Fernandes was back in the starting XI replacing Sachin Gawas. While Guardian boss Riston Rodrigues made three changes as he gave a start to Rahul Kumar, Neville Albuquerque and Gaurish Naik replacing suspended Sanwil D’Costa, Brain Faria and Anthony Pereira. First ten minutes of the match saw possession football from both the teams but Calangute were more efficient in the same and came up with the first shot of the match when U20 Josley Dias cut past two defenders outside the box and blasted a powerful shot on goal but Guardian keeper Ram Sroop denied him with a diving save. They got another chance in the very next minute when Pedro Gonsalves found Yogesh Kadam in front of the empty goal, but the winger shot wide. At the other end the referee awarded a free-kick for Guardian just outside the box, but Nicholas Rodrigues’ shot missed the target narrowly. Once again the keeper Ram was in action as he blocked Yogesh’s efforts from close range. On the counter-attack, Djourou Isaac Ouedji was perfectly fed in the box by Yakubu Mohammed, but the midfielder failed to deliver in a one-on-one situation. A few minutes later, Guardian were awarded another free-kick near the danger zone, but Mickey’s sparkling shot brushed the crossbar and went out for a goal-kick. On resumption of play, Guardian came close to scoring but Benzu Clemente failed to control his header from point blank range off Nicholas’ corner. While Guardian were busy attacking, Calangute scored the goal on a counter-attack. Substitute Agnelo Colaco headed a pass to Yogesh who faked the move and ball reached a waiting Salim Mohammed outside the box. The striker drilled a perfect shot with the outside of his foot and it went past the diving goalkeeper to make it 1-0 for the visitors. Guardian tried to get back into the match through Yakubu when the Nigerian striker dribbled past three defenders to enter the box but later shot wide from close range. At the other end, the North Goa club should have easily doubled their lead when a long throw-in from Agnelo found Salim in the box who headed a pass to Sunny Fernandes in the box but the U20 lad’s header sailed over the crossbar. In the last quarter of the match, the Savordem-based club came up with two more attacks on the opponents. First, Rahul sent a curling cross in the box. The defenders and keeper Melroy Fernandes failed to clear the same with Yakubu for the ball, but Nigerian striker failed to connect it from close. Later, substitute Lavino Fernandes’ unleashed a sparkling shot from 6 yards but it was brilliantly cleared by keeper Melroy for a corner. In the dying minutes of the match, Guardian tried hard to find the equalizer but Calangute’s defense stood strong and helped their side to take all three points home. With today’s win, Calangute jumped to second place with 25 points from 13 matches, while Guardian remain sixth in the league table with 17 points from 11 matches.