Salgaocar beat Viva Kerala 1-0

Margao: Salgaocar beat Viva Kerala by a solitary goal in their last match of the first leg of the ONGC

I-league at Nehru stadium in Fatorda here today. After a barren first half, Salgacoar scored the all important goal in the 59th minute through Keita Mandjou to place themselves at 11th position with 13 points from 13 matches, one point behind Viva Kerala who are placed 10th. The first half was mostly confined to midfield where both the teams lacked the zeal to break the deadlock. Salgoacar who had better ball possession failed to produce the same flare which they displayed against Mohun Bagan and Churchill Bros upfront, they seldom broke the rival defense and the only time they did get a chance to score in the first half it was the rival keeper Sharath K who rose to the occassion to deny Beevan D`Mello and Cajetan Fernandes from scoring. On the other hand, the visitors came with couple of good moves and nearly scored in the 31st minute when Sirajudeen left footer was well put out by diving keeper Kalyan Chaubey off a pass from Sakeer. Salgaocar came with renewed ideas after the lemon break and nearly went ahead in the 47th minute when a combined move between substiute Lestor Fernandes and Beevan D`Mello which saw the latter shot blocked by keeper Sharath, and off the rebound Keita try at the goal was again save by the keeper. After these close misses, Salgaocar surged ahead in the 59th minute. A combined move between Francis Fernandes who relayed the ball to Lestor Fernandes, the latter dribbled past a couple of defenders and squared the ball to better place Keita Mandjou who slammed the ball into the net from close. Salgaocar nearly increased the lead few minutes later when Beevan D`mello found the net off a cross from Keita but referee Andrew Shekar pulled Beevan off side. Viva Kerala tried their best to equalise especially in the closing stage but Salgaocar defense led by man of the match Luciano Sabrosa stood the ground firm to give their side full points. Referee Andrew Shekar showed yellow card to Viva Kerala`s Reuben Senyo. PTI