Thangboi Sinto, beaming after Lajong secured three straight home victories against Chennai City FC had reserved praise for his young team.
The Reds of Meghlaya upended the Citizens from Chennai, with a dominant 2-0 victory on home soil, notching up their third win on the trot. Dipanda play anathema to Chennai City, scoring both goals in the 20th and 65th minute respectively.
“Credit to all the young U22 boys but that said, there’s a lot of room for improvement because we’re not there yet. Definitely not because against stronger teams we need to play much better than the way we’ve played so far,” Singto stated after the conclusion of a match, which his side completely dominated.
Fielding the same team that he named for the previous two matches, the team has eight U22 players in the first eleven which speaks volumes about the youth development policy of the coach and his team. He, however, admitted that the players have started showing signs of tiredness having had so less time between the last three matches to recover. Speaking on the brighter note, he was confident that the players will have enough time to recover for the showdown against Churchill Brothers.
“The good thing is that we have four days and as professional players I think four days is more than enough to recover. A few days of rest is the tonic we need,” he added.
Thangboi and defender Konsham Chinglesana spoke about the importance of keeping a clean sheet in the pre-match press conference and having got the first clean sheet of the season he said after the match that it is a reward for the whole team for defending as a unit.
He also underlined the importance of the players showing hunger and aggression in the home matches and believes its the metal strength and the physical fitness they’ve shown over the past weeks at home that has really got his team into this winning momentum.
“Yeah (we’ve been the fitter side) but I know we can do better. Maybe I’m a bit demanding but I am demanding because I know the boys can do better in terms of fitness, in terms of playing, in terms of individuality, in terms of pairing and grouping and moreover as a team we can do better. I think we have to go back and train better,” he stated, as a matter-of-factly.
Chennai City’s Robin Charles Raja was critical of the performance of his players and conceded that it was a bridge in communication between the keeper and the defenders that led to the first goal and wasn’t all happy with the way they conceded the second too.
“Eche headed it behind and there was a melee and then Dicka scored,” lamented the Chennai coach.
Raja elucidated in his post match interview that the current strike partnership of Thank and Charles aren’t really clicking at the moment but conceded there was lack of services for them too.
Isaac’s set piece deliveries terrorised his team all evening with both the goals coming at the end of the Lajong midfielder’s cross.
“The team missed Karanjit and Ravanan,” was all he expressed as a conclusion, on his team’s shaky defence
