Sporting defeats Viva Kerala by 3-0,

Margao, Jan 29 (UNI) Riding on a fine brace by Nigerian Junior Elijah, Sporting club de Goa humbled Viva Kerala by 3-0 and gain full points in their 14th round of the ONGC I league championship match at the Nehru stadium Fatorda today.

Harmanjot Singh Khabra in the (20th minute) and Junior Elijah in the (33rd and 60th minute) scored for Sporting club de Goa.

With this win Sporting increased their points tally to 16 from 14 outings and moved on to sixth place relegating Air India to 7th place. Vika Kerala remained on same 8th place with 12 points.

Sporting played at full steam with better share of exchanges and came up with a good move as early as in the 4th minute but Kerala's goalkeeper Purshothaman brought off a fine save blocking the attempted try by Junior Elijah.

Kerala had a chance to move ahead in the 13th minute of the first half, when Baba Tunde initiated a move and pass to C S Salil, to beat the rival goalkeeper but his hasty shot went wide.

Sporting scored the first goal in the 20th minute of the first half through Harmanjot Singh Khabra following a flag kick by Rajesh Meetei taking the score to1-0.

Inspired by a lead, Sporting continued to attack and consolidated their lead in the 33rd minute through Junior Elilah, who after collecting a well measured pass from Chinta Chandrashekar neatly placed the ball into the net to make it 2-0.

After down by two goals, Kerala replaced goalkeeper M V Nelson in place of Purshothaman.

After cross over, the home team further increased their lead in the 60th minute through Junior Elijah (his brace) off a pass received from Adgei Lawrence to make it 3-0.

Kerala had a chance to reduced the margin in the 70th minute but Sporting goalkeeper Luis Barreto had a smart save off a header from Wisdom Abbey.

Later Sporting goalkeeper Luis Barreto was adjudged the man of the match for his fine performance under the bar.

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