Calangute Association ease past Corps of Signals in GPL

Leslee Britto and Joston Pereira’s first-half strike earned the Beachside club the full points.

Corps of Signals continued their poor form in the league as they went down to Calangute Association by two goals in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today.

Despite dominant play in the last match, Signals went down to FC Bardez by 3-1. On the other hand, Calangute had defeated Santa Cruz Club of Cavelossim in the previous round match. Whereas, the last meet between the two sides ended in 2-1, in favour of the Beachside.

With this victory, the Beachside moved up to fifth place with 14 points from 10 matches, while Signals has 11 points from 11 outings.  

Omprakash Bhogta, Sunit Toppo, Solomon Khongsai, Mukut Surin and U-20 Nitesh Parwar were the few changes made by their manager Major VS Kamble following a defeat in the last match, while Mayur Sheler and Sanjay Vengurlekar replaced Nigerian defender Kouame Joseph and Omkar Satelkar in the starting XI for the North Goan club.

Signals had the best chance to take the lead in the 9th minutes when Harshad Thube found Roshan Singh in the box but the skipper Roshan Singh failed to convert it from close.

At the other end, Calangute surged ahead through U-20 Leslee Britto in the 17th minutes when Joston Pereira made a superb run on the wing and found the U-20 striker with a cut-back pass whose strike went through the Signals keeper Binu Purushthama’s leg making it 1-0 for the Beachside.

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Ten minutes later, Joston doubled the lead for Calangute when he brilliantly finished the ball home from inside the box after receiving a perfect through pass from Leslee.

Signals had a chance to reduce the margin in the 42nd minutes when Joshley Gomes nicely curled the ball to Nitesh in the box but rival keeper Jason D’Mello came off his line to clear the danger.  

The second session was equally contested by both the teams. However, Signals were more potent side to create the chance but could not capitalise on their opportunities.

In one of these, Pawan Thakur’s corner was strongly headed towards the goal by Kuldeep Kumar but keeper Jason made a diving effort to push it for a corner.

The dying minutes of the match witnessed, Calangute wasting two clear-cut chances as first, Blake Haldankar’s tap went just wide off Josley Dias’ cross from the left, while a few minutes later, Josley himself saw his powerful strike brilliantly tipped it for a corner.