I-League: Sporting Clube de Goa blank Rangdajied United FC 3-0 to go fourth

Sporting Clube de Goa scored their third successive victory as they blanked bottom place Rangdajied United FC 3-0 to move to fourth place in the Airtel I-League match played at Duler stadium in Mapusa on Thursday.

Sporting, who led 2-0 at half time, scored through Ogba Kalu (13th), Deepak Devrani (31st) and Karpeh (71st). The win takes Sporting Clube de Goa to 10 points from five matches, the same as Salgaocar FC and Pune FC. Rangdajied United remained at the bottom with two points from six matches.

Sporting coach Oscar Bruzon, looking for a hat-trick of wins, made only one change in his side, which beat Mohun Bagan, by bringing in Deepak Devrani in place of Joyner Lourenco.

While Rangdajied United coach Santosh Kashyap, looking for their first win, made two changes bringing in Pratik Chowdhury and Sandesh Gadkari in place of Edmar Figueira and Nagen Tamang.

Sporting started on an attacking note and had an early chance to surge ahead when Jovel Martins' cross from the left had Boima Karpeh in a good position to head the ball, but the striker sent it wide from the edge of the six yards.

Rangdajied goalkeeper Surjay Kumar Pariyar came to his side's rescue twice as he denied another header by Karpeh and Ogba Kalu's shot off the rebound with Martins once being the provider.

However, Rangdajied United's defense finally crumbled when Cajetan Fernandes' corner from the left was headed down by Rowllin Borges, with the ball falling in the path of Kalu who poked the ball past Suriyar in the 13th minute.

Sporting kept the pressure on and increased the lead in the 31st minute when Deepak Devrani rose high from an unmarked position to head the ball into the far corner of the net from a flag-kick taken by Cajetan Fernandes from the left.

The second half lacked goal-mouth action at either ends. Sporting, who looked more dominant, came with raids with Kalu sending his header wide in the 66th minute.

Minutes later Rangdejied citadel again crumbled when Cajetan released Karpeh, who cut past onrushing Pariyar before slotting the ball home to make it 3-0 in the 71st minute.

Substitute Victorino Fernandes had a glorious chance to score in the 82nd minute after being played upfront by Deepak Devrani.

The Sporting substitute instead attempted to square the ball to Karpeh as Thomas Saikhom's clearance almost rolled in his own net but was kept our by Pariyar, who did well to parry Victorino's shot off the rebound.

Mohammedan Sporting's three foreign attackers -- Penn Orji, Josimar and Tolgay -- were all seeing the ball a lot in key areas but each of them were wasteful either with their final ball or finish.

Around the midway point of the second half, United FC's striker Ranti Martins also started to have a bigger influence on the game as he was starting to link up more with his midfielders.

But the game turned in Mohammedan Sporting's favour when Bello was shown his second yellow for a foul on Josimar in the 71st minute.

However, Mohammedan Sporting failed to capitalise on their numerical advantage with their only genuine opportunity coming when Sangram failed to a collect cross from Penn but Josimar's effort was cleared off the line by Dhanachandra Singh.

United FC defended solidly and could have even got maximum points as Ranti went agonisingly close with a powerful effort from just outside the box.

The result drops United FC to fifth place with the purple shirts winless in four now, while Mohammedan Sporting are 10th with four points from five matches.