Santos clause supreme

November 15: Salgaocar had a Brazilian touch in their Rovers Cup football triumph. In his third match for the National Football League ch...

November 15: Salgaocar had a Brazilian touch in their Rovers Cup football triumph. In his third match for the National Football League champions, Joao Pereira Dos Santos scored the match-winner as Salgaocar gave a polished second-half display to outplay Churchill Brothers in the final.

Santos pushed in Dharamjit Singh’s pass in the 69th minute. The goal may have come without too much flourish. But Salgaocar showed plenty of that in the second half. The first half was evenly fought out.

Churchill fired the first salvo when striker Marcus Carvalho hit the bar. At the other end, Santos burst down the right and slammed the ball across the goalmouth. If intended as a cross, it went abegging; if Santos aiming at goal, it went just wide.

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Late in the half, it was Salgaocar’s turn to hit the bar as right-wing back Francis Coelho’s header off a corner hit the underside of the bar, dropped on Anthony Mathew’s head, hit the post and rolled out.

But the situation changed in the second half. Churchill had just oneopening and that came in injury time when Somatai Shaiza’s left out-step blast from 10 yards went wide. Salgaocar introduced Sabir Ali Mondal and S Venkatesh in place of Alvito D’Cunha and N Ravichandran.

That gave the the Salgaocar mid-field plenty of teeth to bite. Dennis Cabral, who was in the playing 11 today unlike in the semi-finals and was having a great game, got support from Venkatesh. With Alvito in not the best form, Sabir Mondal provided Santos with the running support.

Prior to the goal, Cabral had missed from a left-foot shot that went wide. A little later, Sabir came in and created plenty of panic in the already pressured defence.

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“The stopper backs are to be blamed for the goal. They should have cleared the ball away, instead of allowing Santos to score,” said Churchill coach Danny McLennon.

Salgaocar coach, Shabbir Ali looked relieved. “This win has come at the right time, prior to the NFL,” he said.

His pain at losing the Goa League title was obvious. “I did not want to tell(the journalists) that we had actually lost to a Goan team for the first time in two years. It came in the final league match against Churchill,” he said.

With this win, Salgaocar, under Shabbir, have improved their record against Churchill to six victories, four draws and one defeat.

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No prize money!
The prize money for the winners has not yet been decided. wifa sECRETARY Wali Mohammed was totally ignorant when asked what the prize money was. “I have no idea whatsoever,” he said.

Shivanand Salgaocar, the owner of the winning club, when informed about the lack of prize money replied: “We play to win. If we get it, fine,” he said.