Panjim Footballers down Corps of Signals to register first win in GPL

Daryl Costa scored the all-important goal for the capital city side.

Panjim Footballers secured their first win of the season, as they edged past 10-man Corps of Signals by a solitary goal in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today.

With these three points, Panjim have eight points from 13 matches, while Signals have 10 points from 13 outings.

In the absence of head coach Savio Vaz who was suspended by the GFA, manager Anthony Vas took charge of Panjim, who faced a 6-1 defeat against Churchill Brothers in the last match. Whereas, Clifton Fernandes, Prasil Kunkolkar and Cyril Dias made it into the starting XI for the capital city side. On the other hand, Signals made no changes to their side, which were edged by Dempo SC in the last match.

The match started with end-to-end play in the first few minutes but as it progressed, Panjim dictated the proceedings with continues attacks, as they took just nine minutes to create their first chance of the match, when Clifton was in a commanding position, but failed to keep his shot on target from just inside the box.

Three minutes later, Panjim came up with another attack, as this time Alston Camotio brilliantly curled the ball to Cyril in the box, but the striker’s header went wide from six yards out. They wasted another chance in the 26th minute, as skipper Joel Colaco also failed to keep his shot on target from the edge of the box.

The capital city side had the best chance on the half hour mark, when Cyril set up Daryl Costa with a superb through pass, but the winger’s potent low cross was pushed away for a corner by Signals’ veteran keeper Binu Purushothama.

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Signals also made a few raids on the opposition, but most of their attacks died before entering the box, while few were wasted by their attackers with aimless shots.

With just 40 seconds played in the second half, the Army men were reduced to 10-men, when their defender Om Prakash Bhogta hit Chandan Gawas’ head and referee Sunil Nasnodkar showed him a straight red card.

A few minutes later, Panjim came up with a swift attack, as Alston tried to find Daryl with a curler from the left flank, but Signals custodian Binu dived to divert the ball to safety.

With the hour mark approaching, Signals made two quick raids on the rivals as first, Pawan Thakur tried his luck from just inside the box, but Panjim keeper Sherwin Da Cunha produced a breathtaking block to keep his side safe. Pawan was in action again in the 60th minute, as he was brilliantly fed in front of goal by Lairellaktam Singh with a cross, but the midfielder failed to connect with just the Panjim keeper to beat.

After probing attacks, Panjim finally succeeded in breaching the Army men’s defence in the 85th minute, when Daryl smartly tapped the ball over out of position keeper Binu from inside the box, to book the first three points of the season for his team.