Pune: Derrick Pereira achieved what he had come here for as Salgaocar FC scored a resounding 3-1 win over Mumbai FC in the Round 5 match of the Airtel I-League here on Friday (October 18, 2013).
Darryl Duffy scored twice in the space of six minutes, while Gilbert Olivera smashed home one in the 90th minute as the visitors left Khalid Jamil’s Mumbai FC gasping for breath.
Jayesh Rane was the lone scorer for Mumbai after they were 2-0 down, but that was the only solace for Jamil as Mumbai crashed to its first defeat of the season.
The win took Salgaocar to the top of the I-League standings—10 points from 4 matches—as they pushed Bengaluru FC to the No 2 position. They too have 10 points, but the Goans have better goal difference than Bengaluru.
Mumbai FC will stay in fifth position with 6 points from 5 matches, a result that will push Jamil back on the drawing board.
Karma Tsewang, who played on this ground for Pune FC for a couple of seasons, raised the bar and penetrated into Mumbai defence in the 63rd minute. He beat at least three Mumbai defenders before setting up Olivera, whose shot was well blocked by goalkeeper Kunal Sawant.
Salgaocar didn’t lose sleep over the move that fizzled out as Duffy collected a clean through ball from Rahul Kumar and shot past Sawant before beating two defenders on the run. That was his fourth goal of the season and the Scot looks hungry for more.
Then came French defender Claude Gnakpa who sneaked into Mumbai defence but Sawant tipped the ball over for corner, which went waste.
Six minutes later, Duffy again headed the ball, a cross from Olivera, to give Salgaocar 2-0 lead.
Jamil was furious at the way his boys allowed two quick goals to be scored. His egging had effect in a sense as Sanjdar Ahmadi and Jayesh Rane moved up to challenge Salgaocar. Ahmadi’s 79th minute shot was well blocked by Karanjit Singh.
Duffy was in fine touch no doubt. He went straight up before he was tackled cleanly to bring an end to a nice move. With just five minutes to go for the regulation time, Jayesh Rane scores a regulation goal to raise Mumbai’s hopes, but only just.
Salgaocar carried on with their relentless attack that saw Olivera scoring in the 90th minute leaving Mumbai defence in utter confusion.