Team Herald
sports@herald-goa.com
MAPUSA: Guardian Angel SC went down fighting to mighty Dempo SC by 1-0 margin in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium, here, on Monday.
The all-important goal for the winners came in the 48th minute of play from Aaron Bareto’s header.
With Monday’s win Dempo SC have 15 points from six matches, while Guardian Angel SC have just one point from five matches.
The teams went into the breather locked in a goalless draw, where 11 corners from Golden Eagles went in vain with Guardian Angel SC’s last line of defence - Milroy Clement, Livan Clement, James, Fedrich Fernandes and withdrawn Peter Carvalho time and again curbed the rival attacks.
Pruthvesh Pednekar and Aaron Bareto also failed to guide their strikes inside the goal frame.
However, just three minutes into the second session and Golden Eagles forged ahead due to poor collection from goalkeeper Oswin Rodrigues off a cross from Shallum Pires to find Aaron Bareto heading the ball into the goal, 1-0.
As the match progressed, Dempo SC’s U-21 Asmon Viegas and Aaron Bareto shot skywards from close.
Guardian Angel SC had just one goal bound strike at the rival goal but U-21 Rayan Menezes’ power-packed right footer from inside the 18-yard box hit Dempo SC’s defender for a corner.
A strong appeal by Guardian Angel SC’s player for a penalty was turned down by Referee Valenton Fernandes.
In the stoppage time, Golden Eagles had two more chances to further increase their lead by substitute Saiesh Bagkar. First it was thwarted by Guardian Angel SC’s custodian Oswin in one to one situation and two minutes later his goal-bound strike rebounded off the horizontal bar.