Sporting Goa down Churchill Brothers to lift Goa Police Cup

Churchill striker Uttam Rai, who scored six goals in the tournament was judged Man of the Tournament, while Sporting custodian Melroy Fernandes was judged the Man of the Match for excellent performance under the bar.

Sporting Clube de Goa crowned the champions of the Goa Police Cup as they eased past Churchill Brothers Sports Club by an easy 3-1 margin in the finals played at GMC Stadium earlier today.  Quan Gomes, Cajetan Fernandes and Ganesh Thakur scored in the second session to give the second trophy of the season for the Flaming Orange. Substitute James Fernandes scored the consolation goal for the Red Machines.

Sporting who had defeated Salgaocar FC to reach the finals made no changes to his side as their coach Mateus Costa chose to filed the same XI which registered an easy 2-0 win in the semis, whereas, Churchill gaffer Alfred Fernandes made only one change to his side which hammered Guardian Angel SC 5-1 in the semi-finals as Jovel Martin was back in the lineup for the Red Machines. 

Sporting started the match on attacking note and took just a few seconds from the kick-off to come close to scoring as their tricky midfielder Quan Gomes cut past a defender and found Nigerian striker Philip Odogwu in the commanding position inside the box but Churchill defender Jovels cleared the danger on time.

Churchill replied them with a swift attack from the right as Nigerian striker Francis Oneyama nicely curled the ball in the box but striker Uttam Rai failed to connect from close. A few minutes later, Uttam had another chance when Francis once again found him with a curler from the right but this time also the striker failed to connect his header from goalmouth, where the ball rolled to unmarked Alber Gonsalves but his shot found the side netting from close.

At the other end, Sporting once again came close to scoring when Alesh Sawant easily dribbled past a defender o enter the box and sent a low cross to Marcus Mascarenhas in front of the goal but the forward failed to connect.

Another opportunity went in the vain for the Flaming Orange in the 38th minute when Quan made a cut-back to Glan Martins at the top of the box but his fierce shot went just over the crossbar.

In the added time, Sporting keeper Melroy Fernandes came with a double save as he first blocked Israil Gurung’s powerful shot from just inside the box, where the ball again rolled to the Churchill right-back but Melroy once again denied him with a diving effort.

On crossing over, Churchill were the first to look at the goal when Uttam easily danced past three defenders in the box but keeper Melroy came off his line to block the striker. on the counter, Sporting striker Marcus was in the commanding position to break the deadlock but his weak shot was easily collected by Churchill keeper James Kithan.

However, in the 62nd minute, Sporting were successful to break the deadlock when substitute Ganesh Thakur made a short pass to Quan in the box who clinically finished the ball at the far-post to take his side into the lead.

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Ten minutes later, Sporting doubled their lead through Cajetan Fernandes as Marcus fed the midfielder with a perfect header at the far post where Cajetan made no mistake to head the ball home from close. Alesh Sawant was the architect of the goal with a fine free-kick from the distance.

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Energized by two quick goals, Sporting added another to their tally in the 77th minutes as this time Marcus found Ganesh with a pin-point perfect cross from the left, who brilliantly shot past Churchill keeper Kithan from inside the box to make it 3-0 for the Flaming Orange.  

Churchill pulled one back in the closing stage of the match as Nicholas Fernandes’ low cross was easily tapped in by James Fernandes to make it 3-1 in the 89th minute.