Dempo Sports Club registered the biggest win of the Goa Football Association (GFA) Professional League pounding Velsao Sports and Cultural Club (VSCC) 6-0 at Duler stadium that began on a surface weathered by the heavy rains and ended with a rain of goals.
Joaquim Abranches, once again, was the pick of the evening – making play and scoring goals – for his two goals and he was assisted by Kirtikesh Gadekar, Alber Gonsalves, Beevan D’Mello and Nickson Castanha who all scored a goal each for the winners.
In the absence of head coach Sameer Naik, assistant coach-cum-manager Camilo Gonsalves was given the charge of the team and he made two changes to his team which had lost to Sporting Clube de Goa with Edwin Viegas and Yogesh Kadam replacing the injured Mathew Gonsalves and Shubham Malwankar.
Velsao coach Ajay Acharya also made the same number of changes to his side following their 0-3 defeat at the hands of Churchill Brothers SC as keeper Roanal Gaunkar and forward Jesloy Moniz found their names in the playing XI for the South Goa club.
Velsao were unlucky not to score in the very first minute as Romario Da Costa set up Jesloy Moniz with a through pass but the forward’s stiff grounder missed the target as the ball deflected the wrong way after it landed on a puddle near the Dempo goal post.
It took Dempo seven minutes to get a bearing of the rain soaked field and when they did, Kirtikesh Gadekar capitalised on Velsao’s defense the clear the ball from a wet pitch to shoot past their goalkeeper Roanal Gaunkar to mark the beginning of a deluge of goals.
Velsao suffered another blow as their custodian suffered a neck injury and was replaced by Aliston Fernandes.
Velsao also had a chance to level the terms in the 24th minute when Bersal Viegas nicely curled the ball to onrushing Shubham Rao Desai in the box but the winger’s header missed the target narrowly with rival keeper Agnelo Gomes completely out of position.
Dempo goalkeeper Agnelo, who showed lack of confidence in the last match , played better but will need to improve if he intends keeping his team in sight of the title.
Dempo could have consolidated their lead when winger Alber Gonsalves saw his strike from outside the box rebound off the goalpost unmarked Kirtikesh in the box but the last named could not control his shot.
Dempo had an opportunity to double their lead in the 41st minute when skipper Joaquim Abranches made a short pass to Velito Cruz whose sparkling strike hit Velsao defender Bersal and was looping inside the Velsoa goal but substitute keeper Aliston brilliantly punched it over for a corner.
However, Dempo extended their lead from the resultant corner as Nickson Castanha’s corner was headed towards the goal by Shallum Pires which was blocked by Velsao keeper Aliston. However, Joaquim slotted the rebound in taking his team for the lemon with a two goal cushion.
The second half started with the third goal when two minutes in a fine cross by Nickson was neatly headed in by Joaquim from close to make it 3-0.
In the next few minutes, few more opportunities came into Dempo’s way but aimless shooting by Joaquim and Alber restricted the score line.
However, in the 65th minute, The Golden Eagles managed to add another goal to their tally when substitute Beevan D’Mello foxed Velsao defender Sadik Shaikh in the box and found Alber with a square pass, who blasted from point-blank range making it 4-0.
Substitute Beevan also registered his name on the score sheet in the 84th minute as the other substitute Pedro Gonsalves made a lob pass to the forward in the box to shoot home from inside the box to make it 5-0.
Defender Nickson Castanha hammered the last coffin in with an individual effort from the halfway line.
