Coimbatore: Back to winning ways after the derby debacle, East Bengal will aim to carry it’s winning momentum of two matches when they face hosts Chennai City at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday.
A 5-1 decimation of Shillong Lajong followed by a 3-2 win over Churchill have put the Red and Gold in the fourth position. Coach Khalid Jamil however doesn’t believe in looking at the past and instead is focused on facing a resurgent Chennai with confidence.
“We just want to play our natural game as we have played all our matches. I never look back into the past and won’t do that either. We played a positive football in our last game and garnered important three points. Boys are really confident and we are focused on tomorrow’s game,” said the former Mumbai City gaffer.
A lot was said about Jamil’s decision to play a misfiring Willis Plaza who was guilty of squandering some easy chances in the past matches. A brace in the Churchill game has however subsided things for the moment and the Trinidad Tobago striker hoped to continue from here.
“We’re really feeling confident, we are in good shape and whether I score or anyone else does, it matters little. The most important thing is the team and to churn out the positive results”, said the former Aizwal man.
Chennai City on the other hand have finally found a win after a string of poor defeats and captain Soosai Raj who so far has been the most impressive player for them said that the win has come at the right time.
“Our win came at the right moment. Although we’re playing some positive football, results were not coming our way. Finally, we got the win which was long overdue,” said the skipper.
Coach V Soundarajan however looked concerned about the less recovery time of his players who will play their second match in the space of four days. “We played our last match on 19th while they (Kingfisher East Bengal) played two days before. Then we had to fly back to Coimbatore. It might be a concern for my boys tomorrow”, said the gaffer also adding that the home match against East Bengal won’t be of any advantage for them because this is the first time they will play on the turf.
“It’s our first home match of the season and incidentally this will be our first time at our new home stadium. Hence, it can be termed as an away fixture for us as well.”
Sydney Vanaspaul who was also present alongside his coach and captain unlike others looked into the past and hope to repeat the same feat again.
“We all remember our last seaosn’s win and it’ll obviously boost us before tomorrow’s match. But, everyone will start from the scratch and we have to try our best to repeat the feat again,” he concluded recalling Chennai’s win over East Bengal last season at home.