We were unlucky: Khalid Jamil

by Kaushal Shukla February 8, 2016

Mumbai FC fell to their first defeat of the 2016 I-League campaign away to Maharashtrian rivals DSK Shivajians, thanks to a clever finish from Ivorian striker Douhou Pierre in the 20^th minute. The men in yellow saw plenty of the ball throughout the game, but found a stern DSK Shivajians defence and an in-form Subrata Pal too hard to get past. The game ended Mumbai FC’s eleven game unbeaten run in the I-League as the Yellow Submarines failed to close the gap on leaders Bengaluru FC who themselves had a slip-up earlier in the round.

But Coach Khalid Jamil had no complaints about his players as he felt they gave it their all, while claiming his side didn’t quite have the rub of the green on their side. “I can’t really complaint. I felt my players gave it their all. To be honest, I think we were slightly unlucky today. On another day, we would have got something from the game, but sadly today wasn’t to be that day,” expressed Khalid Jamil.

The result was something that disappointed the Mumbai FC gaffer, especially after a morale boosting win against Bengaluru FC in the previous game, but Jamil couldn’t hire his admiration for Subrata Pal, who according to Jamil saved the day for their conquerors on the day. “The result is little bit disappointing as we wanted to back the win against Bengaluru FC with a positive result, but I have to say that Subrata Pal was outstanding today and was saving everything,” Jamil told the media after the game on Sunday.

The concerning factor for the Mumbai FC fans was the injury to captain Taisuke Matsugae who had to carried out of the field after injuring his leg, but Khalid Jamil refused to rule his captain out of the Mohun Bagan clash on Wednesday. “I haven’t seen his injury, so I can’t tell you a lot, but I think he will be fine,” stated the Mumbai FC boss.

The Mumbai FC attacks would have done with the pace and trickery of Jayesh Rane against a compact DSK Shivajians defence, but Khalid Jamil chose against dwelling on Jayesh’s absence for too long and felt his replacement Malmnganba Metei did pretty well considering the situation. “I won’t say we missed pace upfront as I felt Malmnganba Metei tried hard. We have to consider the fact that it was his first full start and he will only get better in games to come,” Jamil opined as he concluded his post-match thoughts.

The Mumbai FC Coach doesn’t have too much time to prepare for his side’s next assignment which is against defending Champions Mohun Bagan at home and he will be hoping for a response from his team when the champions come calling at Cooperage on Wednesday.