Salgaocar do the double over Churchill Brother to continue their winning streak in GPL

The Greens registered straight ninth win in the league.

Salgaocar FC registered a hammering 5-2 win over Churchill Brothers Sports Club in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today.

With this win, Salgaocar has 41 points from 20 matches, while Churchill remained on 19 points from 18 matches.

Churchill coach Alfred Fernandes made three changes to his side following their 4-1 defeat at the hands of same opponents as Constancio Rodrigues, Shravan Shetty and Uttam Rai found their names in the starting XI, while, Salgaocar Coach Norbert Gonsalves also made few changes as Joaquim Carvalho and Stephen Alvares made the comeback in the Green Brigade’s lineup. 

Nigerian striker Sunday gave an early lead to Salgaocar when he brilliantly controlled a floater from his teammate Mackroy Peixote and shot past Churchill keeper James Kithan from close to make it 1-0 for the Green Brigade in the 6th minute.

A few minutes later, they had a chance to double their tally when Willis Plaza’s clearance was volleyed by Salgaocar defender Assumption Soares from just outside the box but his goalbound shot was divingly pushed for a corner by Churchill keeper Kithan.  

Another opportunity went in vain for Salgaocar in the 31st minutes when their U-20 striker Devendra Murgaonkar tried to find unmarked Sunday in the goalmouth with a low cross but Churchill defender Banpynkhrawnam N. cleared it on time.

 At the other end, Trinidadian striker Plaza made a excellent footwork to cut past a defender in the box and lay off it to Israil Gurung who easily dribbled past two defenders and shot past Salgaocar keeper S. Rajini Kumar to level the terms for his side.

Salgaocar defender Lenny Pereira restored the lead in the 41st minutes when he stunned the opponents with a long ranger shot where Churchill keeper made mistake to collect his shot as the ball rolled in the back of the nylons making it 2-1 for the Green Brigade.

ALSO READ:

East Bengal: The story of Indian football's perennial bridesmaid

The AFC Asian Cup will be a different challenge- Udanta Singh

India to host South Africa, New Zealand and Chinese Taipei

Three minutes later, Nigerian forward Sunday scored his second and team’s third goal when he was nicely set up by Devendra with a defence-splitting through pass in the box where he covered some ground before finishing it in the goal to make it 3-1 for Salgaocar.

On crossing over, the match was restricted to the midfield play in the first 25 minutes, which ended with a goal from Salgaocar in the 71st minutes when Churchill custodian failed to clear a floater from skipper Gilbert Oliveira, where substitute Agnelo Colaco quickly tapped the ball in the empty net with his first touch to make it 4-1.

At other end, Trinidadian forward reduced the margin for Churchill when he fluently finished the ball in the back of the nylons from close after getting a through pass from Uttam to make it 4-2 for the Red Machines.  

Salgaocar U-20 midfielder Stephen hammered the last nail into the Red Machines’s coffin in the 87th minutes when he brilliantly placed the ball home from close off Devendra’s lay off to make it 5-2 for the Green Brigade.