Salgaocar drub Guardian in the Goa Pro League.

Liston Colaco shines with a brace in the Greens victory…

Salgaocar FC trashed Guardian Angel Sports Club as they registered an overwhelming 4-0 win in the Goa Professional League match played at Ambelim Ground earlier today. The Greens were in fantastic form as they have lost only one match out of 11 played. They had recently defeated Clube Sao Miguel de Taleigao in their last league match. Guardian have experienced mixed form winning two, drawing one and losing their last match against Calangute Association. The Salgaocar head coach Norbert Gonsalves made two changes to his side as injured Lenny Pereira and Nigerian striker Kamo Stephane Bayi were replaced by Balwinder Singh and Souvik Das respectively. While Guardian started without their star defender Mickey Fernandes as he was out with an injury. Defender Rahul Kumar was also unavailable due to suspension. However, Anthony Pereira was back after serving a match suspension along with Perryson Rebello, Alson Fernandes and Brain Faria. The Greens started the match on an attacking note and created the first chance of the match. Rosario Mendes tried his luck from distance but his effort brushed a Guardian defender and went out for a corner. In the very next minute, Souvik’s header missed the target narrowly off Gilbert Oliveira’s corner. While, Guardian replied with a quick attack when Anthony found Yakubu Mohammed in the box with a long ball from the halfway line, but the Ghanaian striker failed to control the ball. Salgaocar came out attacking and scored the first goal within the first 10 minutes. Keita Boubcar’s brilliant header eased past Guardian keeper Ram Sroop, off James Fernandes’ perfect free-kick from the left. Keyed up by a goal, Salgaocar came up with three more attacks on opponents. First, Mackroy Peixote saw his powerful shot go into the waiting gloves of keeper Ram. Later, James’ long ranger was very well blocked by defender Benzu Clemente at the cost of a corner. The last attack of the first half came from Liston Colaco, who got hold of a pass from Mackroy, dribbled past one defender in the box and drilled a perfect right footer, only to see it go wide by few inches. In between this, Guardian came close to scoring when Alson sent a long throw-in to Nicholas Rodrigues, who in turn headed a pass to substitute Lavino Fernandes. But the striker’s first touch was too strong and the ball sailed over the crossbar from point-blank range. The second session was completely dominated by the Greens and they added three more goals to their score. It was just two minutes in the second half when the Greens doubled their lead through Mackroy. His sparkling shot from close range brushed keeper Ram’s gloves and settled in goal. Their supports had hardly settled after celebrating the second goal when Slagaocar came up with the third. Guardian budged in the defense and failed to clear Brian’s corner, taking advantage of the same U20 Liston cut past one defender in the box and sent a commanding shot, which directly finished in the back of the opponents nylons. A few minutes later, there was another opportunity for the Vasco-based club to inflate their lead but this time Brian failed to connect with Mackroy’s lofted pass and the ball went to the keeper Ram. However, it was a span of two more minutes and Liston scored his second. Once again he showed brilliant footwork to cut past two defenders and surprised keeper Ram who was motionless with the long range shot finishing in goal, making it 4-0 for the Vasco-based club. Last minutes of the match saw some efforts from Guardian. But it was too late to get back into the match. The match ended with an excellent performance from U20 Liston. The Greens gaffer Norbert said, “4-0 was a decent victory, I am really happy with my boys’ performance. Now we will focus on our next match against Corps of Signals.” With this win, Salgaocar jumped to the 2nd spot with 27 points from 12 matches, while Guardian have 17 points from 12 outings and stands 6th in the league table