It was the first clash between two I-league teams - Sporting Clube de Goa and JCT Mills - at the Durand Cup on Thursday. And defying the negligible attendance and the unfamiliar arena, the Goa club fought to the brink before going down 3-1 in the quarter-final league match.On opportunities, they were head to head, but missed the tempo that JCT’s Eduardo da Silva had set in the first half. The Brazilian midfielder drew attention in only the second minute with an away swirling free-kick that bounced off the base of the bar. But in between Edu’s stepovers, Lavino Fernandes astonished the handful of spectators with an against-the-run goal for Sporting Club in the 12th minute — netting a rebound off keeper Felix D’Souza. JCT, however, didn’t take too long to pull off the one-goal cushion as Baljeet Sahni breached Sporting’s defence to score in the 23rd. Six minutes later, Edu bettered his previous runs through the right and the cross needed only a faint touch from Pawan Kumar to beat D’Souza.In the 57th minute, Bisheshwor Singh stopped his run into the box fearing an offside call, but the flag never went up. In the 65th, Wilton Gomes along with Freddy Mascarenhas and Thoudam Singh let go an opportunity, taking too much time to pass on. In another 10 minutes, though, JCT increased the margin to 3-1 through Baldeep Singh. “Defence is our strength and we played on that. Even a single goal can win you the match,” JCT coach, Sukhwinder Singh said. Earlier, Tata Football Academy kept up their run by holding Air India to a goalless draw.
