ISL 2021-22: Jamshedpur FC left it late as Ishan Pandita scored the winner after coming on from the bench. The win against SC East Bengal propelled the Men of Steel to the top of the Indian Super League points table on Tuesday at the GM C Athletic Stadium in Bambolim. Follow all the ISL 2021-22 LIVE Updates only on InsideSport.IN
Head coach Owen Coyle was delighted with his team’s performance on the night as they did put up a great fight and somehow left the field with all three points against the Red and Golds.
FULL-TIME | #JFCSCEB
With @_ishanpandita_'s 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫, @JamshedpurFC go 🔝 of the #HeroISL 2021-22 table! 🔥#LetsFootball pic.twitter.com/t5L1aAo2Xy
— Indian Super League (@IndSuperLeague) January 11, 2022
Thoughts on Super-sub Ishan Pandita
It was a night for super-sub Ishan Pandita who scored a late goal yet again and earned the crucial three points. Speaking about the youngsters, Coyle revealed how much hard he works on the training ground and also how India are very lucky to have him as the next big thing. “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. And as I mentioned there, if I can continue to have him here, I can help him to improve his game. I mean, the national team is going to have fantastic number nine, that’s for sure.”
Opinion on SC East Bengal
SC East Bengal defended with all their might and did not allow the Jamshedpur FC defenders to get the better of them on the night until the 88th minute. Coyle praised the effort put in by the SC East Bengal defenders but also credited his boys for keeping up the tempo. “SCEB has drawn four of the previous five games against Kerala Blasters FC, Mumbai City FC, Hyderabad FC, and Bengaluru FC the only game they lost in the five games was against Northeast United FC when the man was sent-off. SC East Bengal have shown that how tough is to beat them. Of course, it took us late in the day, we could easily score three, four, or five goals with the chances that we had, but a couple of saves, good defending by SCEB stopped us. But the important thing is you got to be patient, not get frustrated,” Coyle highlighted.
Thoughts on reaching the top of the points table
Despite climbing to the top of the table, Coyle opined how he feels that they could have had more points than they have right now. He pointed out instances and shared how a few things did not go his team’s way in this campaign.
“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,” Coyle opined.
Competitiveness of the ISL
Lastly speaking on the competitiveness of the ISL, Coyle shared how he feels that the teams are equally adept to take on each other hence there have been multiple changes at the summit.
When questioned whether the league will stay like this or not, Coyle stated, “Yeah, I think that will happen. Because there are some really good teams in the league. And it’s very competitive. And that’s what you want. We want to grow and develop at the end of the tournament. I think this year has been fantastic. Some of the individual goals, some of the team goals, some of the fantastic quality play, and the promotion of young Indian players coming in. So I don’t think there’s any doubt that the league is getting better and better and better. Now everybody’s eyeing for the top spots.”
Editors pick
