Salgaocar thump Taleigao in the Goa Pro League

The Portside club moved to second in the table after the win…

Goals by James and Keita helped Salgaocar FC to register an easy win over Clube Sao Miguel de Taleigao in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today. The Vasco-based club had returned from Pune after crashing out in the semi-final of the DSK Cup against Ozone FC. But their run in the GPL has been excellent as they are unbeaten in their last three matches. While Taleigao’s performance has been very poor as they are yet to register a win in the league. The Salgaocar coach Norbert Gonsalves made three changes to his side as Sanson Pereira and Asheer Akhtar were back in the team, while he also brought back goalkeeper Bruno Colaco replacing Naveen Kumar. CSMT head coach Pascoal Pereira made only one change, bringing back Shawyn Fernandes in the starting XI. The Greens started the match on an attacking note and within the first five minutes they marched into the opponent’s area three times. On one of these occasions, Asheer’s header from close range went wide. At the other end, Taleigoa’s Salu Santos tried to find Sherwin Lobo in the box, but Asheer cleared it before the midfielder could reach it. In the 5th minute, Salgaocar striker Kamo Stephane Bayi suffered a hamstring injury and was replaced by Clencio Pinto. Just after coming on, Clencio made his impact as he came up with back-to-back attempts on the opponent’s goal. First, his header missed the target by a whisker off James Fernandes’ cross from the right flank. Later Liston Colaco found him in the box, but his shot rebounded off the crossbar. Again he tried with a header but this time the ball sailed over the crossbar. One more chance came Salgaocar’s way but Liston’s shot failed to find the net from six yards. Finally, Salgaocar scored the opener when Keita Boubacar sent a perfect ground pass to James in the box, who covered some ground and drilled a powerful shot on goal. The keeper Rohan Shaikh failed to clear it and the ball finished in the net. Energized by a goal, Salgaocar came up with three more attempts in the dying minutes of the first half. Once again James tried his luck but his shot missed the target by hairline’s distance. The keeper Rohan made two excellent saves, first to block Liston’s sparkling shot and later dived to his limit to deny Clencio’s effort from close range. The Portside started the second half on the attack but again Liston failed to deliver as his header went wide off James’ curling cross. A few minutes later, Taleigao’s Gourav Kankonkar was booked for a rough tackle on Liston. Once again Liston came up with another chance when he dribbled past three defenders in the box and tapped the ball towards goal. But Taleigao defender Krishnanath Shirodkar cleared it off the line. However, in the process, he handled the ball and gave away the penalty SFC. Boubacar calmly sent the goalkeeper the wrong way and made it 2-0 for the Vasco-based club. Last few minutes of the match witnessed two more attacked from the Greens. Substitute Harmonjot Singh’s powerful shot was drivingly pushed for a corner by keeper Rohan. While Mackroy Peixote’s long ranger missed the target narrowly. Even after securing all three points Salgaocar Coach Norbert was not happy and said, “Though we won the match, we didn't play well today, maybe because of the tiredness due to the long travel from Pune. But, we will try to get back in the next match.” With today’s win, Salgaocar jumped to 2nd place with 24 points from 11 matches, while Taleigao remain at the bottom of the table with just 3 points from 12 outings. Photo © : RJ 28