Kolkata: Shillong Lajong will aim to continue their winning momentum when they take on Churchill Brothers in their second home match at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium on Saturday. The ‘Reds’ won their first match against debutants Gokulam FC 1-0 in a closely fought encounter. Assistant coach Alison is however not impressed by his side’s display and expects more attractive football from the boys.
“It was good football but not attractive football (in the first match). For the next match, I expect my boys to play better and focus more on attacking,” Alison said.
Nonetheless, he agreed that a win in the very first match of the season has boosted their confidence and that they are prepared for Churchill.
“After the win on Monday, the boys have gained more confidence. But now our main focus is the next match against Churchill.” he said. Before adding, “The boys have recovered well from the first match and we have been training hard. We are ready for our second home match.”
A renowned name in Indian football for the pool of talent that comes out of the Meghalaya based club, Lajong has however faltered to perform in the league in recent times finishing a mere fifth last season and will aim to improve their tally this time around with a new coach Bobby Nongbet who has been a part of Lajong youth teams in the past.
Meanwhile Churchill Brothers, make their return to the top divison of Indian football, after the exile for a year in the Goa Professional League where they finished sixth. The ‘Charu’ boys will however look to make few heads turn this campaign under a new head coach Mykola Shevchenko and an entirely new team.
Calling the away match into the north-eastern part of the country as an disadvantage, given the changes in climate and conditions, Shevchenko also added that his team has not had the opportunity to prepare as much as they would have wanted to, but will get better with time.
“We haven’t had too much time to prepare as the foreigners arrived late but with the Indian players the preparation has been good. It is a fresh team and we will get better game by game,” said Shevchenko.
“It is as if we came into winter from summer,” he quipped when asked about the climate in Shillong. ‘The Red Machines’ will surely hope to take all three points back home, if not the cold.