Royal Wahingdoh go top after brushing aside SC Goa

by Kaushal Shukla February 15, 2015

Royal Wahingdoh surged to the I-League summit after they recorded a comfortable 2-0 win over Sporting Club de Goa at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong on the damp wintery afternoon of 15th February 2015.

Royal Wahingdoh were looking for their first win on home soil which would be enough to take them to the top of the table, while Sporting Goa were looking for their first win of this campaign.

The game started slowly as both teams seemed to cancel each other out in the opening ten minutes. Royal Wahingdoh started to influence the game a lot more post the fifteen minute mark with concentrated possession in the Sporting half as Seityasen Singh and Kim Seong-Yong created a few openings for the home side.

Densil Theobald came closest to opening the scoring in the 19th minute when his powerful drive from outside the box hit the crossbar. Densil was unlucky to be denied by the woodwork after his shot had got the better of R. Kumar in goal for Sporting Club de Goa.

Sporting managed to stem the flow of Royal Wahingdoh’s attacks as the game moved past half hour mark, but Sporting’s Anthony Wolfe was cautioned in the 25th minute after a foul on Lallawnzuala.

Royal Wahingdoh were denied the opening goal thanks to some heroic defending from the Sporting defender in the 29th minute, as Densil Theobald was found in a threatening position after Kim Seong-Yong diverted a cross from Lallawnzuala in Densil’s path.

Sporting’s best effort came in the 37th minute, when Boimah Karpeh forced a brilliant save off the Royal Wahingdoh shot stopper Prem Kumar who did well to punch clear a viscous strike from Kerpeh.

But Sporting couldn’t keep Royal Wahingdoh out in the 40th minute, when Seityasen Singh raced into the box to get on the end of a cross from the left flank and finish past the Sporting keeper Kumar to give the Royals the important lead.

Royal Wahingdoh went into the break with an advantage given to them by Saityasen Singh’s fine strike five minutes before the interval. The hosts edged the first half and Sporting needed a bit more cutting edge in the second period.

Sporting brought on Beevan D’Mello in place of Pratesh Shirodkar at half time looking to get back into proceedings. The change seemed to have blew a bit more life in the opening exchanges of the second half as their play had a lot more purpose than the first half.

But Sporting’s resurgence hit a road block when Royal Wahingdoh doubled their advantage in the 57th minute when Kim Seong-Yong headed home a cross from inside the box.

Sporting reacted with twin changes in the 62nd and 65th minute replacing Boima Karpeh and Rowlin Borges with Victorino Fernandes and Cajetan Fernandes.

But it was Royal Wahingdoh who came close to scoring when Bekay’s powerful shot sailed inches over the crossbar. The hosts then made their first substitution in the 75th minute when they substituted Godwin Franco with Marlangki Suting.

Sporting failed to get going as time was running out for the visitors. Santosh Kashyap’s men did well to kill any chances of a Sporting recovery by keeping hold off the ball.

Referee blew for full time after four stoppage time minutes as Royal Wahingdoh got their first win on home turf to go top of the I-League standings with 13 points from 6 games.

Sporting Club de Goa suffered their third defeat of the season and remained winless after five games in this season’s Hero I-League.