MARGAO: Brazilian playmaker Beto netted a splendid brace that not only enabled Dempo  Sports Club to record a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Sporting Clube de Goa but also virtually put the Goans firmly in the driving  seat in the race for the title.

In a gripping encounter at the Nehru stadium, watched by a fairly modest crowed, it was the bottom-placed team Sporting, which went ahead through midfielder Adil Khan in the first session, but Beto turned on his magic cancelling out the lead soon after the restart and than nodded in the match-winner deep into injury time to give Dempo a firm grip on the title.
Dempo, having an eye on extending their lead at the top of the table, would have got an ideal start but Joaquim  Abranches miserably ballooned over from a yard out as Sporting keeper Felix D’Souza could only block a fierce right footer of Beto with the match just three minutes old. As the match progressed, Dempo were made to rue the golden opportunity with Sporting Clube taking the lead in the 2nd minute. Adil Khan was tripped by Beto in a seemingly dangerous position and Bisheshwar Singh’s smart free-kick inside the box was met with a looping header by Adil Khan which found the back of the net, leaving Dempo keeper Abhijit Mondal totally flat-footed. It was a stunner for the title aspirants but Dempo could’ve been in deeper trouble as Junior was denied by Abhijit in the 26th minute and a minute later Clifford Miranda effected a crucial goalline save to  frustrate Sporting even further. Sporting’s forceful display seemed to evaporate Dempo’s promising  start in the blazing heat and Vishwas Gaonkar’s side returned for the breather with their tails up.
After the change of ends, the scenario changed dramatically with Beto, such an influence for Dempo over the years, restored parity with a brilliant solo effort with five minutes gone. The mercurial Brazilian, who was later an unanimous choice for the man of the match, received a quick throw-in from Valeriano Rebello and entered inside the box to go past both the rival stoppers, first Kenji Arai and then Felipe Gomes to place his left footer beyond the reach of Felix D’Sousa. The equaliser rang alarm bells for Sporting but Armando Colaco’s side, which had a siege over their rivals did everything but poor  finishing  by Joaquim Abranches, skipper Anthony Pereira and Ranty Martins to some extent proved to be a stumbling block for the former champs.
Sporting could not arrest the one way traffic but threatened on a set piece situation with substitute Michael Tayo connecting a strong header off Rovan Pereira’s flag-kick, inches over the horizontal bar with twenty minutes remaining.
With fulltime approaching, Dempo seemed to be in no hurry with coach Armando and his bench relaxing and enjoying the proceedings which were nothing less than tense for the faithful of the blues. With three clever changes late in the match, Dempo had enough  fresh legs to counter a last  salvo deep into the added time. Valeriano picked a ball in the centre circle and pushed to substitute Peter Carvalho wide on the right and the winger burst into space to fire in a hard cross in the box where Beto timed his run to perfection to rise above the rival defence to stab a vicious header into the back of the nylons. The goal at such a late stage not only broke the hearts of Sporting but it also snapped a three match unbeaten streak of Vishwas Gaonkar’s side on very cruel note.