Curtorim Gymkhana ride on Aliston’s twin strikes

NT NETWORK

Ambelim

Youthful striker Aliston Fernandes’s first half brace helped Curtorim Gymkhana register a 2-0 win against Goa Police Sports Club in the GFA First Division League match played at Ambelim grounds on Thursday.

Aliston struck quite early into the match as found the mark early in the 8th and 9th minute respectively.

On the first instance, Aliston moved into the box and on receiving a neat pass from Cliff Barreto lost no time to send a scorching shot that beat Goa Police keeper Niklesh Naik hands down.

In the very next minute, Aliston was at his best once again as he collected a slicing pass from overlapping defender Vicky Cardozo and lifted the ball over the head of rival keeper into the far corner of the nets.

Demoralised by the early setback, Goa Police failed to respond with any worthwhile moves even though the team came up very strongly in the second session during which time they missed a penalty and saw another shot off a striker hitting the post.

Curtorim Gymkhana did well in the first half as they gelled well in the middle as well as in the defence to keep the Goa Police team in check.

Curtorim Gymkhana’s defence was ably managed by Savio Fernandes, Vicky Cardozo, Myson Fernandes and Manuel Castanha who did not give any room for Goa Police strikers to maneuver freely.

Goa Police midfield comprising Milind Shinde, Sheikh Sallya, Niraj D’Mello and Shelleford Fernandes appeared to have gone into the shell and as such their strikers could not pose much threat to the Curtorim Gymkhana citadel which refused to crumble, despite some counter forays made by the Goa Police team, particularly in the second session of play.

The script looked different in the second session with Goa Police creating several goal-bound moves. They had a golden chance in the 60th minute to pull a goal back after Curtorim Gymkhana defender Deepak Chari handled the ball, but much to the disappointment of all his teammates and supporters Goa Police’s Milind Shinde, who took the responsibility of taking the penalty shot, ended in sending the ball off the mark.

And in the next two minutes of play, Sheikh MS saw his effort hitting the post from close distance. Sheikh had another chance to find the mark thereafter but was unable to tap the ball in from close distance.

Curtorim Gymkhana had a few chances in the second half; one of them came Aliston’s way but the in-form striker saw his efforts moving off the mark and thus lost the opportunity to complete his hat-trick.

Goa Police made last ditch efforts to pull a goal back and they did come very close to find the mark but Curtorim Gymkhana keeper Shubham Naik proved to be a hard nut to crack as he came up with some brilliant saves.