ISL: Jamshedpur can go toe to toe with best teams, says Owen Coyle
Jan 12, 2022
Panaji (Goa) [India], January 12 : Jamshedpur FC head coach Owen Coyle was pleased with his team's overall performance as his side secured three points and climbed to the top in the league table after defeating SC East Bengal 1-0 in the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Athletic Stadium in Bambolim, Goa on Tuesday.
Ishan Pandita (88') was the difference-maker after scoring another late goal with a towering header to secure three points for Jamshedpur FC. The result allowed Coyle's men to leapfrog the competition and reach first place in the points table with 19 points.
Coyle in his post-match press conference said: "Yeah, well, it's nice. I mean, it's nice to be top of the table. Anybody wants to be top at top of the tables after 20 games, not at eleventh spot. But we would certainly want to be here rather than standing at the bottom. We might have been there, we probably should have more points than what we already have. If you look back at the games, the game here against Chennaiyin FC, you know, how they won the game."
"So we know that we can go toe to toe with the best teams, we just have to make sure moving forward, we are doing the same things, and working hard. And when we get chances, we are clinical and we have good goalscorers. We'll look to add another one coming in. And there will be real competition within the squad," the coach added.
Talking about Ishan Pandita winner, he said: "Oh yeah, that's why I brought him to the football club. He's just a wonderful player. He's going to get better and to be fair, is working his socks off to getting into that starting lineup. He would have been there but he had a bit of an injury. But now you see he's is free-flowing and moving well in the field with a couple of chances before they actually got the goal. But the header, I mean he's a natural finisher."
Jamshedpur FC will next clash with Hyderabad FC on January 17. .