Mohali: Minerva Punjab will aim to continue their winning run when they take on Chennai City FC at the Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana on Monday. The ‘Lions’ who began their campaign with a 2-2 draw at home against Mohun Bagan, clinched all six points in the next two fixtures against Neroca and Indian Arrows.
Placed second in the points table, Minerva will also be hoping to regain the top position with a win over Chennai City and coach Wangkhem Khogen Singh was optimistic about his team’s chances.
“We are going for 3 points every game: Day in, day out. We won’t pay loose football. We will follow the same philosophy and play according to our strength,” he said at the pre-match conference also adding that maintaining the winning momentum and not getting complacent is the key to be successful in a long league.
Accompanying him was Chencho Gyeltshen, who has been the club’s marquee signing this season. He has already opened his scoring account and is looking forward to scoring more goals in his pursuit of winning the league title.
“Yes, I am definitely looking to score tomorrow. More than that I love to contribute in terms of assists as well. If anybody is there in a better position than me then I will play the ball to him,” said the Bhutanese captain.
Chennai City unlike Minerva however had a bumpy start to the season, thrashed 3-0 by the Indian Arrows in their opening encounter, the Soundarajan boys did snatch a draw against newbies Gokulam FC. Minerva will howver be different challenge. The Chennai gaffer said, “We are here to get 3 points. We will go all out. Minerva Punjab have played really well, they are a strong team. We have analysed their strikers. Our team wasn’t settled in the first match against Indian Arrows. The team bonding was missing there but in the second game we played well.”
Coming from the southern part of the country where winter is not as effective as summer, Soundarajan however refused to agree that the chilled weather in Punjab may affect his players. “We aren’t worried too much about the weather. As soon as the players will come on
the pitch, they will get warmed up so it doesn’t really bother us,” he concluded.