Victorino Fernandes stars in Sporting Goa’s commanding win over Signals

With the win the Flaming Orange climbed to the second spot in the league table.

Sporting Clube de Goa thrashed Corps of Signals by an 8-1 margin in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium on Thursday afternoon.

Victorino scored four goals and Egyptian Fady Riad scored two, while Marcus Mascarenhas and Mauvin Borges came off the bench to score one each for the Flaming Orange. Pawan Thakur was the lone goalscorer for the Army Men.

Sporting should have taken the lead in the second minute of the match, when their Egyptian midfielder Fady Riad made a darting run from the halfway line and found skipper Victorino Fernandes in the box with a superb through-ball, but his strike was brilliantly fisted over the crossbar by Signals keeper Binu Purushothama.

At the other end, Signals stunned the defending champions when their midfielder Pawan Thakur saw opposition keeper Melroy Fernandes out of position and went for glory from distance and the ball crashed into the back of the net to make it 1-0 for the Army Men in the seventh minute.

Sporting took another seven minutes to level back, as Cajetan Fernandes’ corner was smartly tapped in by Victorino, making it all square for his side.

Just after finding the equaliser, Sporting were the dominant side as they took the lead in the 24th minute, when Cajetan's shot was brilliantly blocked by Signals keeper Binu. However, the loose ball was brilliantly slotted in by unmarked Egyptian Fady to put the Flaming Orange into the lead.

They had a chance inflate their lead within the next five minutes, when Fady produced a low cross into the box, but skipper Victorino failed to connect with it from close range.

However, in the 31st minute, Victorino scored his second and the team's third, as Cajetan failed to convert Fady’s easy low cross into the box, but the well-positioned forward made no mistake to tap the ball home to make it 3-1 for Sporting.

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Signals had an early chance in the second session to reduce their margin when U-20 winger Joel Dias found Roshan Singh in the box, but the midfielder shot wide.

At the other end, Sporting scored their fourth goal in the 57th minute, when Fady tried to find Mauvin Borges with a through pass in the box which was blocked by Signals defender, but unmarked Victorino snatched the ball in the box, dribbled past substitute keeper Niyas Mon and calmly finished in the box to complete his hat-trick.

Energized by four goals, Sporting added four more in the next 30 minutes. First, George D’Souza found Mauvin with a cross whose shot was blocked by Signals keeper Mon, but unmarked Marcus Mascarenhas who came in as a substitute smartly headed in from close range to make it 5-1 for his side.

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George was once again in action, as this time he made an excellent through pass to Victorino in the box, who nicely finished the ball into the net to make his personal tally to four and the team's sixth goal.

In the very next minute, Mauvin also added his name to the score-sheet as Glan Martins' perfect pass was brilliantly tapped in by the midfielder in the 79th minute, while Egyptian midfielder Fady produced an individual effort to score the eighth goal for his side in added-time.