Sunday Seah nets winner for Salgaocar

Salgaocar chalked out an unimpressive solitary goal victory over Punjab Police at the Guru Gobind Singh stadium, in Jalandhar, on Tuesday to move to the top of the table in the Tata National Football League.

It was their Liberian striker Sunday Seah who got them the all-important goal in the 70th minute of the match.

Punjab Police, with this defeat, stay at the bottom of the table, while Salgaocar, with 26 points, lead Churchill, who play Vasco in Goa on Wednesday, by just a point.

As in their previous matches, it was the same old story of Punjab Police putting pressure on their rivals in the first 20 minutes of play but never getting anywhere near scoring a goal.

Salgaocar, with the likes of Seah, Alvito D'Cunha and Alex Ambrose, were off-colour in the first half. However, after the breather, realising the importance of the outcome of today's match, they pulled up their socks and launched a series of attacks on the rival defence. They got their first real chance to score in the 60th minute, but Seah's sizziling grounder was well-saved by the cops' custodian, Satish Kumar, who dived to his left.

In the 62nd minute, the Liberian striker ran down the left flank and lobbed the ball to the right of the penalty area and Jos Esteves came running in to put the ball into the net much to the relief of his teammates. However, the goal was disallowed as the linesman had raised his flag for off-side.

But in the 70th minute, Seah collected the ball in the rival half and, after dodging four Punjab defenders, lobbed it into the goal. The ball went past the out-stretched hands of custodian Satish Kumar.

In the dying minutes, Salgoancar had another chance to increase their lead but Bruno Coutinho, who came in place of Ambrose, shot wide with only the goalkeeper in front of him.

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