Salgaocar FC extended their unbeaten run to five matches in the I-League as they downed Dempo SC 2-0 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Goa in a round 21 I-League fixture on Wednesday evening. Goals from Bikash Jairu (18^th minute) and Darryl Duffy (23^rd minute) sealed another three vital points for the Greens as they closed the gap at the top to four points.

Arthur Papas made as many as three changes from their last game against Sporting Clube de Goa with Romeo Fernandes, Jewel Raja and Haroon Amiri coming into the starting eleven in place of the suspended Simon Colosimo and Clifford Miranda while Tolgay Ozbey was named on the bench.

Derrick Pereira named an unchanged line-up with Dudu Omagbemi and Darryl Duffy leading their attack.

It was Dempo who started better of the two sides. In the sixth minute, Beto sent a delightful through-ball for Alwyn George who tried to dribble past a Salgaocar defender only to give away the ball cheaply.

A few minutes later, the Dempo duo combined again but with George being ruled offside.

However Pereira’s outfit took the lead in the 18^th minute against the run of play. Dudu got past Amiri and looked to shoot but instead passed it to unmarked Bikash Jairu on the left who slotted it into the top of the net.

Five minutes later, Salgaocar doubled their lead through Darryl Duffy.  Rocus Lamare found Duffy inside the box who took a couple of steps before placing it to the right of Laxmikant Kattimani to make it 2-0.

Dempo still had the bulk of possession but failed to make inroads into the Salgaocar rearguard. They were reduced to taking shots from outside the box which never really threatened Karanjit Singh in goal.

They had a chance to pull one back before the half-time when Beto sent in a through-ball for Romeo who was close to nicking it in but for an alert Karanjit averted the danger.

Romeo had another opportunity to pull one back as he went past Rahul Kumar and saw his left-footed effort go straight into the hands of Karanjit.

After the break, Papas decided to bring in Tolgay Ozbey in place of Jewel Raja while Derrick Pereira introduced Francis Fernandes with Rahul Kumar making way for him.

Salgaocar got a great opportunity in the 59th minute to add to their tally when Dudu got the ball in the midfield and played a neat pass to Duffy, who was sprinting through to the right flank. Duffy cut inside and had plenty of space and time to shoot, but his effort went wide, much to the agony of the Salgaocar fans assembled.

Only four minutes later, a chance was created on the other end, when Ozbey got hold of the ball in a melee in front of the Salgaocar box. The striker dribbled past one defender and took a powerful shot, but Karanjit  pulled off a brilliant save to deny him a goal.

Only five minutes after the hour mark, Dudu missed an easy opportunity to add his name on the scoresheet when he dribbled past Haroon Amiri to invade into Dempo's territory, but shot it way wide.

The former Sporting Clube de Goa man got another chance in the 79th minute after playing a string of passes with Rosario Mendes and Darryl Duffy. In this case also, his tame effort was not good enough to trouble the Dempo custodian.

Dempo got an opportunity late into the game, but Karanjit made back-to-back saves to ensure a clean sheet. First, he parried away Beto's shot and then made another brilliant stop as Jeje Lalpekhlua pulled the trigger on the rebound.

Both the teams failed to make any more clear-cut chances and the game ended with the same scoreline.

Salgaocar now have 33 points from their 19 matches and are only 4 points behind league-toppers Bengaluru FC, while Dempo remain sixth with 25 points.