Salgaocar held on to their first half strike by Gilbert Olivera to beat Shillong Lajong 1-0 and came out of the relegation in the Hero I-League in Vasco on Saturday.
With this victory, Salgaocar have now moved up to sixth position in the points table.
The solitary goal of the match by Olivera, whose pile driver from top of the box beat leaping goalkeeper Vishal Keith to find the roof of the net, earned him the man of the match award.
Salgaocar, who are unbeaten in the last three matches, took their points tally to 12 points, the same as Mumbai FC, but are behind them on account of head on count.
Shillong Lajong, who suffered their second successive loss, are behind Salgaocar with 11 points from 11 matches.
East Bengal rally through Ranti hat-trict to beat Aizawl
Ranti Martins struck a hat-trict as East Bengal made a late rally from a two-goal deficit to beat a 10-man Aizawl FC 3-2 in an I-League football match in Aizawl on Saturday.
Brandon Valpuia (19th minute) and Yuta Kinowaki (58th) scored for the home side before Ranti Martins struck in the 69th, 85th and 88th minutes to secure all three points for East Bengal.
Aizawl were done in by a direct red card shown on their key defender Emmanuel Chigozie in the 67th minute, and East Bengal, trailing 0-2 then, grabbed with both their hands the numerical advantage and pumped in three goals through Ranti to win the match.
With Saturday's triple strike, Ranti went atop the scoring charts with 11 goals.
East Bengal now have 20 points from 11 matches, two points adrift of leaders and arch rivals Mohun Bagan as well as Bengaluru FC.
Image: Action in the I-League match between Salgaocar FC and Shillong Lajong at Vasco in Goa on Saturday'
Photograph: PTI
