ISL 2022-23: We deserved at least a point: Northeast United FC assistant coach Paul Groves

NorthEast United FC assistant coach Paul Groves believes his team deserved at least a point after they suffered a 1-0 loss against Jamshedpur FC at the JRD Tata Sports Complex, Jamshedpur on Sunday.

Patrick Hartley scored for the home team in the 30th minute of the game to put his team in front. However, NorthEast United FC could only take two shots on target. Both teams shared the possession almost equally though.

Meanwhile, the Highlanders played better in the second half but they were unable to find the back of the net. NorthEast United FC have got off to a horrid start in the ninth season of the tournament as they have lost all of their four matches.

Sharing his thoughts on the match, Paul Groves said in the post-match press conference, “When we look at today’s performance, it was a game of two halves. Jamshedpur FC played their best performance in the first half, but in the second half, we were the better team. we imposed more threats and created more opportunities to score goals but unfortunately, we were not able to take those chances and that’s why we ended up on the wrong side of the result, but we think that we didn’t deserve this loss. We could have come away with a point at least.”

In fact, the visitors created some chances at the fag end of the match but could not grab them. Groves feels his team was able to create chances in the first half but failed to make the most of them.

Groves went on to add, “Yes, we didn’t finish off those attacks. In fact, not only in the last ten minutes but for the last half an hour we were on top and dominated the game, when we had that amount of possession we must have finished those opportunities but couldn’t do that. That’s the moment we had fallen. We did the effort, work rate, commitment, and organization despite having some limitations like height disadvantage during set-pieces and we were dealing with it quite well until they scored the goal using height advantage.”

Meanwhile, the team’s head coach Marco Balbul was given a red card and he won’t be available for the club’s next game. Groves said that they would look to prepare in the best possible manner without their gaffer.

He concluded, “The work is done throughout the week about that match day and different scenarios of what may or may not happen, and make sure that we prepare the best possible way, we can. Obviously, there will be a new situation that will arise during the game and we must react to it, and with the experience on the bench we will able to deal with it.”

NorthEast United FC will take on Kerala Blasters FC on Saturday at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, Guwahati.