Dempo came from behind to defeat Haywards 2000 Sporting 3-1 and remained on the second place in the eighth National Football League at Nehru stadium, Margao on Sunday.

In a barren first half, Dempo created many scoring chances for themselves but failed to get past keeper Richard Sanceez, who thwarted shots of Jose Colaco, R C Prakash and Sunday Seah.

Haywards started promisingly dictating terms for the first quarter of the first-half and took the lead in the 46th minute, when Abdul Lateer Siriki glancing header found the net off and Rew Louis free kick.

But Dempo fought back and restored parity four minutes later through a self goal.

Mohammed Gafari, who played the major role in his team victory got the better of a rival defender and sent a pass to Melvin Rodrigues, defender Louis Aniweta, who tried to clear the ball ended in shooting into his own goal.

Four minutes later, Gafari again laid a pass to Sunday Seah from the left who got the better of a defender and shot home to give Dempo the lead.

Gafari who had his hands in the earlier two goals made a combined move with R C Prakash, the former split the defence with a square pass and R C Prakash made no mistake to find the net.

Dempo who collected 42 points from 21 matches thus consolidated their position to remain on second spot behind East Bengal.

While Haywards 2000 Sporting remained on sixth position with 26 points from 20 matches.