Signals beat Cavelossim in GPL

Harshad Thube played an important role in the Army Men’s victory.

Corps of Signals ended their six-match winless streak as they edged past Santa Cruz Club of Cavelossim 2-1 in the hard-fought Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today.

Today’s win helped Signals to climb to the 7th position with 14 points from 12 matches, while Cavelossim continued to struggle in the bottom half with just six points from 10 matches.

Both the side were in a poor form as Signals had lost their last five matches, while Cavelossim had lost one less than the opponents. Signals recent defeat was against Calangute Association, while Cavelossim were thumped 4-1 by Guardian Angel SC in the previous round match. However, the Army Men had the upper hand as they had edged out Cavelossim in their last meet.

After starting from bench in the last match, Pawan Thakur and U-20 striker Cyril Dias were back in the starting XI for the Army men, while their manager Major VS Kamble also gave start to Praful Surin, Kejins K, Paul Victor and Romans MS. On the other hand, Cavelossim coach Severino Fernandes made only two changes as Joseph Monteiro and Allwyn Vaz found their names in the playing XI.

Though Signals dominated the proceedings, it was Cavelossim who opened the account in the 26th minutes when U-20 midfielder Allwyn brilliantly chested it down from Ashley Araujo’s long ball before finishing it at the far-post making it 1-0 for Cavelossim.

Just a minute before this, Signals should have taken the lead when Kejins' corner was nicely tapped by Chand Singh from close but Cavelossim keeper Joseph blocked it at the cost of a corner.

Another chance went begging for Signals in the 31st minutes when Pawan Thakur wasted too much time in front of the goal after receiving a fine cross from Romans MS.

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However, in the 36th minutes, the Army men finally found the equaliser when Harshad Thube power-pack shot directly entered the goal from just inside the box making it all square for his side.

Pumped up by the goal, Signals added another to their tally within next three minutes as this time Pawan made no mistake to head the ball home from close after receiving an inch-perfect cross from Harshad.

They had another two chances to further inflate their lead but first, Cyril was thwarted by keeper Joseph in a one-on-one situation, while Pawan saw his curling shot timely blocked by Cavelossim custodian to limit the damage.

The second half started with a swift attack from Cavelossim side however, Signals last line cleared the danger on time.A few minutes later, they had another chance but this time also Signals keeper Binu Purushothama cleared the danger at the cost of a corner.

At the other end, Signals had the best chance to increased their lead when Pawan Thakur found Cyril with just keeper to beat but the U-20 striker’s shot was brilliantly blocked by keeper Joseph.

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The golden chance came into Cavelossim’s ways when Signals defender Romans brought down Cavelossim striker Samson Simoes in the box to give away the penalty to the opponents but Moises D’Sa was the culprit not to equalise for his team as the midfielder shot wide from the spot.

In the dying minutes of the match, Cavelossi came out all attacking where they continuously penetrated rival’s defence but the Army men made no mistake to keep every danger away from their side until the full-time whistle.