Sporting’s Omagbemi with 21 goals emerged the highest scorer

Margao: Riding second half goals by R.C. Prakash and Ranty Martins, Dempo clinched their maiden National Football League (NFL) crown, defeating Tollygunge Agragami 2-0 on Saturday.

After a barren first half, Dempo surged ahead in the 56th minute when Prakash converted a cross by Clifford Miranda from the right in the 56th minute. Martins then sealed the fate of the match, scoring in the 78th minute off Miranda’s pass.

Dempo thus achieved the rare distinction of winning the Federation Cup and the NFL title.

In another match at Nehru Stadium, Mahindra United stamped out Sporting Clube de Goa’s dream of winning the crown, beating them 3-1 in a thriller.

Mahindra rode a Flavio Rodrigues brace (40th, 86th) and added another when substitute K Koluthungan netted in the 81st minute. Sporting reduced the margin through Wilton Gomes (42nd).

Mahindra thus finished with 34 points to remain on fourth place. Sporting Clube de Goa finished second behind Dempo with 45 points.

The match between Sporting and Mahindra was entertaining, more so in the first half, as both teams went for the kill. Mahindra had the first shy but were denied by Sporting ’keeper Luis Barreto, who saved a scorching Flavio Rodrigues shot in the second minute.

Minutes later, Luis again came to his side’s rescue when he collected Jatin Bist’s shot.

Sporting, who needed a win to clinch the title, made a counter move and Dudu, who was closely guarded by the rival defenders, saw his shot first blocked by the ’keeper Sandip Nandy and off the deflection, his second attempt was saved by defender Covan Lawrence on the goal line.

At the other end, Flavio Rodrigues, who tormented the rival defence, saw his shot missing narrowly.

Mahindra finally took the lead in the 40th minute when Flavio was brought down by Felip Gomes inside the box. Flavio made no mistake in converting the penalty.

Two minutes later, Sporting restored parity as Gomes headed home from inside the box after Dudu had relayed to hit a cross from the right by Vincent Pires.

The match was evenly poised in the second half.

In order to break Sporting’s rhythm, Mahindra brought in K Koluthungan in place of Khalid Jamil. This paid rich dividends as he broke the deadlock in the 81st minute, scoring off a Jatin Bist pass.

Later he was the provider in the 86th minute when he laid a pass to Flavio who completed his second goal.

SBT stun Fransa

Bottom-placed State Bank of Travancore (SBT), came up with a stunning performance to trounce star-studded Fransa 2-0 in the last NFL encounter for the Ongc Cup here on Saturday.

Coming together as a team, the bankmen seized the initiative in the 26th minute when striker Asif Saheer netted from a Pradeep pass coming from a corner off Naushad.

After SBT’s in-form goalkeeper, Jean Christian came up with a perfect save to block a sharp 25-yard kick by Goan captain Jules Alberto just at the half-time, the hosts brought in the second goal in the 49th minute when Abdul Hakkim neatly connected a square pass from Mohammed Rafi.

Holding sway during most part of the game, SBT had more scoring opportunities but failed to clear the rival custodian, Kalyan Chaubey.

However, it was once again Christian, who hogged the limelight by blocking two perfect scoring chances and was later named the Man-of-the-Match.

Fransa, who tried hard to equalise in the first half and later launched an all-out attack in the second after SBT moved up 2-0, could not break the bankmen’s defence at any stage.

Though SBT increased their final points tally to 18 from 22 outings, they could finish only 11th, while Fransa stayed at the fifth spot with 30 points from as many matches in the 12-team league.