It’s a fantastic result against a good team: Owen Coyle of Jamshedpur FC

Jamshedpur FC head coach Owen Coyle remarked that his team deserved to win 3-0 against the Hyderabad FC in Match 63 of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) on Tuesday at the Athletic Stadium in Bambolim, Goa.

Chinglensana Singh (5′ OG) scored an own goal, which was followed by Peter Hartley (28′) extending his team’s advantage at the interval before Daniel Chima Chukwu (65′) completed the scoring. The victory not only sent Jamshedpur to the top of the Hero ISL rankings, but also guaranteed the club a top-four finishes for the first time in its existence.

Hyderabad, with 35 points from 19 games, now trails Jamshedpur by two points with the latter in the front foot to clinch the ISL League Shield as they have two games in hand.

Coyle addressed the media during the post-match press conference.

Here are some excerpts from his press conference:

2-0 is a dangerous scoreline and we have seen that with Jamshedpur FC previously. How glad were you when that third goal went in against strong opposition like Hyderabad FC?

Absolutely, I mean Hyderabad FC being number one on the table for a long time for a reason. Because they have an outstanding team and they’re got some wonderful players. But you’re right 2-0 has been a dangerous score line. To get that third goal and even though we were down to ten men. We could have added the fourth goal also as we were the team with the best chances even with 10 men. But, players were outstanding for us against a very good team with an outstanding coach. They obviously got into the playoffs last week. And obviously, it gives us all a chance to fight for that number one spot. To do that, we had to deliver the performances late tonight. And we did that, now we have given ourselves a chance of being in a top position.

In the absence of Greg Stewart, Alex Lima stepped up to the play. Your thoughts?

Alex Lima is an outstanding player. Alex had been compromised a little bit by being on the bench because obviously we’re going back to the with winning eleven in most of the matches and we’ve had that winning run and obviously Daniel Chima has been outstanding upfront with Greg behind him. Alex and Jordan Murray were not quite a hundred percent fit yet. But when they stepped out today, obviously they were outstanding tonight. Alex was the best player on the field, I know his qualities he’s a real team player. And then it was good to see him doing that.

You missed out on the semi-final by four points last season. This time you get into the final four with two games in hand. Is finishing first is the bigger target now? 

Well, that’s the target. Now the first target was to get into the playoffs because this club have never been in the playoff. I mean, when I took over this club, the club have taken five points from the last 10 games of the previous campaign, so that tells you how much work to do. Even last year that wasn’t my team I inherited players with all due respect already on contracts around my 10 players good players maybe, but not the way I want to put my team together. So, this year I’ve been able to go and get the ones I want. This is year we’re doing very well; we need to keep it going. We need to focus and concentrate and keep bringing up the quality. It’s an outstanding result tonight for sure.