Goal.com

12-Feb-2013 8:08:00 AM

The Mumbai FC coach was upset at his team's defeat against Pune, and also had a few words to say about his club's critics, who have blamed his team of time-wasting in recent week

Mumbai FC crashed to a 3-0 defeat against Pune FC, in a game termed as the ‘Maharashtra derby’.

While the eventual score-line was comprehensively in the favour of the Red Lizards, Mumbai FC’s coach Khalid Jamil felt that his team might have come away with something from the game, had the referee ruled James Moga offside for the second goal scored by Derrick Pereira’s side.

The former Indian International stated, “In the first half, we were okay, but in the second half the marking was not good (for the first goal). I think the second goal was an offside, it was quite clear actually. If that had not been given, we would have been in the game, but after third goal, we gave up I felt.”

Khalid Jamil also rued the number of chances missed by his side and opined, “We had chances to score in the first half, open chances were missed by N.D Opara and Gabriel Fernandes. If you don’t capitalize on your opportunities, then there is always a problem. Second half we were a total flop, I think they played better.”

The Mumbai FC coach also downplayed the incident between Abhishek Yadav and Derrick Pereira in the first half, when the duo were involved in a heated spat, which might have got nasty, had other players had not intervened.

He mentioned, “They appealed (for a foul) and then they made explicit comments to Abhishek. This happens sometimes in a game. I won’t comment on Derrick, I don’t say anything about anybody, others keep saying (about us).”

When urged to explain his last statement and the recent outbursts by coaches with regards to the alleged tactics employed by Mumbai FC to waste time during games, Jamil stressed, “See, jealousy is a natural human quality. Thankfully the team is doing well, and then these people say we waste time and stuff. They ignore the good things that our team does. Though some coaches do laud us for our performances, but I think this jealousy (amongst other teams) is natural.”

“But a win today was important for us, as even I wanted to react to things. But I will keep quiet now, will utilize the break (to work with the team) and come back stronger,” added the former Indian midfielder.

He also revealed that negative comments by other coaches and players do affect the morale of his younger players, as their hard-work is not recognized. Jamil commented, “The senior players are never disturbed but junior players are affected (by criticism) as they work hard and practice but then people say things like this. It does affect new players like Gabriel, Jayesh Rane and Ashutosh Mehta.”

The Mumbai FC coach stated that he was looking forward to working with the players for the final stretch of matches in the I-League, and had decided not to give the players a break, after the result against Pune FC.

“I was thinking of giving a break to players but have decided not to (after the result against Pune FC). I will rest the regulars a bit,” he concluded.

Follow Ayush Srivastava on 

How do you stay up with football when on the move? With http://m.goal.com –your best source for mobile coverage of the beautiful game.