Salgaocar scored twice in the first-half to register a convincing 2-0 victory over a depleted Hindustan Aeronautics and move to the fourth spot in the seventh Oil PSU-National Football League at the Nehru stadium, in Margao, Goa, on Thursday.
The former champions scored through Sunday Seah (4th minute) and Samson Singh (40th).
Salgacoar have 19 points from ten matches while HAL, with four points, are placed 11th.
Salgaocar dictated terms right from the start with swift short passes and took an early lead in the fourth minute when a forward pass from medio Dharamjit Singh to Seah saw the latter send the ball into the net from inside the box.
The goal propelled Salgaocar to attack with more vigour as they camped into the rival half more often. They increased the lead five minutes before the interval when a cross by man-of-the-match Jatin Bisht from the right was headed in by Samson Singh past keeper Mark Mascarenhas.
Bad passing helped Salgaocar probe into the rival half. The Goa team could have led by bigger margin had Seah, Samson and Climax captilised on the chances that came their way.
Bello Rasaq was unlucky in the second-half when his header hit the post off a Samson cross from the left. HAL came close to scoring once in the first-half but a Satish Kumar try was parried by keeper Kalyan Chaubey off Ishafq's pass.
Referee Suresh showed yellow cards to Salgaocar's Rasaq, Climax Lawrence and HAL's Onyia Obinna.