Rampant Salgaocar hammer bottom-club HAL 4-0

Margao: Defending champions Salgaocar maintained their winning streak and coasted to a comfortable 4-0 victory over bottom-placed HAL in a 15th round I-League clash at the Nehru Stadium, Fatorda on Wednesday.

Salgaocar now have 16 points from their last six matches and took their overall tally to 25 from 15 games, while HAL, with just three points in their kitty, will find it difficult to save themselves from relegation.

Francis Fernandes, Ryuji Sueoka, Gilbert Oliveira and Randeep Singh got the goals for the defending champions, who led 1-0 at the half-way mark.

Salgaocar seemed eager to open their account with a flurry of attacks at the start. Having forced the visitors on the backfoot, the home side had the first chance to surge ahead in the fourth minute when a move from the right saw Bevan D'Mello relay the ball to Nicolao Colaco, whose sent a cross into the box for Ryuji Sueoka. However, the Japanese midfielder's header missed the target narrowly.

The defending champions surged ahead in the 12th minute when HAL goalkeeper P Pramod allowed Francis Fernandes all the time in the world to head home Tomba Singh's measured cross.

After that, Salgaocar held ball possession but found stiff resistance from the rival defence that did well to cut off the moves of the home side.

The visitors, who put up a decent fight in the first half, stitched a couple of good moves and had a good chance to equalise, but a shot at the goal by Vinod Kumar was foiled in the nick of time by Salgaocar custodian Vinay Singh.

Salgaocar's second goal was the result of another defensive lapse, this time Nicolau Colaco's cross was headed into the net by a diving Ryuji Sueoka in the 54th minute.

The third goal by the hosts in the 71st minute was a gem. An overhead ball from Rocus Lamare was controlled by substitute Gilbert Oliveira. The midfielder then drew out the goalkeeper and finished off with an angular drive in perfect placement.

Randeep Singh, who came in place of Francis Fernandes towards the last quarter of the match, then scored with his first touch as the midfielder's powerful shot off Gilbert Oliveira's back-pass from just inside the box rocked the crossbar and sailed into the nets in the 85th.

HAL failed to make their presence felt and their evening was made worse when defender Liliyan Ketteth was sent off by referee MB Santosh for a second bookable offence in the 78th minute for a foul on Beevan D'Mello.

The Bangalore side did not have even a single attempt on goal.