Trailing by a goal in the first-half, Salgaocar rallied to score a fluent 4-2 win over Indian Bank to move to the second spot in the OIL PSU National Football League at the Nehru stadium in Goa on Thursday.
Salgaocar, who had beaten Indian Bank by an identical margin in the away match, scored all the goals in the second-half through Sebastiao Endro (52nd), Climax Lawrence (60th, 75th) and substitute Alex Ambrose (76th).
Indian Bank's goals were scored by K G Joseph (27th) and J Ananda Vasan (70th).
The first-half was a drab affair, where lot of scoring chances went abegging. Tomba Singh, the live wire in Salgaocar midfield along with Jatin Bist, Climax Lawerence and Dharamjit Singh, controlled the midfield but found stiff resistance from the rival defence which allowed little space to operate as defender Vasan and Anandarajan excelled.
With the win, Salgaocar swelled their points tally to 41 points from 21 matches and moved to second place, thus keeping the first three spots wide open.
East Bengal, who lead the table with 46 points and play their crucial match tomorrow against Vasco (40) need only a draw to clinch the title.
Indian Bank, who remained with 20 points from 21 matches, remain in tenth place.
PTI