ISL 2022-23: We saw it through and full credit to the players: Bengaluru FC’s Simon Grayson

Bengaluru FC head coach Simon Grayson was delighted after they defeated FC Goa by 3-1 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru on Thursday. Grayson said they saw it through and gave credit to his players for a collective show.

Sivasakthi Narayanan scored in the sixth minute of the game to give a lead to the home team. However, Iker Guarrotxena equalized in the 33rd minute to keep his team’s playoff hopes alive.

However, Narayanan scored his second of the night in the 76th minute while Perez was able to put the game to bed with his strike after five minutes.

Simon Grayson revealed he motivated his players to pull up their socks at the half-time break as they weren’t at their best in the first 45 minutes.

“We, at times, got overrun in the middle of the pitch. That’s what FC Goa can do to you. If you keep the ball back to good footballing teams, it doesn’t matter what team or system you are playing, good sides will always hurt you and make it difficult for you. And that’s what they did in the first half,” Grayson said in the post-match press conference.

“I made the players realize (at half time) that we haven’t played anywhere near to the levels we have played. I expect what they expect from themselves. I don’t think we have worked hard as we had done in the last few weeks. Closing players down, shuffling across, not dropping deep. There are a lot of things that we have done well that we didn’t do tonight. But that also goes down to a little bit of inexperience in the team. Bruno (Ramires) had to play at center-back. I’m not saying that he is at fault or anything like that, I’m saying that players sometimes have to play in different positions and systems which is not easy to do. But we saw it through and full credit to the players. They kept going and got the result that we did,” he added.

The English manager also showered praise on Sivasakthi Narayanan, who scored a brace against the Gaurs. The 22-year-old youngster has scored six goals in 17 appearances for the Blues this season.

“Siva is a goalscorer. He is always on the move. Nobody would have expected Siva to score the first goal with a header. It was a good delivery but he is always on the move, expecting the ball to land at his feet or in and around him. That’s what the kid does. He works hard in training and his stats are higher than anybody. Once you do extra (work), this, that and the other (stuff), you will get rewarded. And he got his (reward) today,” Grayson stated.

Grayson wants his team to stay ground in the playoff stages and keep up the good show in the crucial matches.

“There’s a fine line between confidence and overconfidence and we have to maintain that level of humbless and level headedness and that certainly won’t come from me. They will have their recovery on Sunday and then we will prepare for whenever and wherever we have to play. That’s the same sort of attitude that has got us to where we are now,” he said.

“The message everytime we leave the dressing room is that we have to be better than the previous game. And that’s what we have to keep focusing on. We haven’t done anything. We have won eight games which is a great record. We have won the Durand Cup, but that’s it. If we want to win anything we got to win a few more games,” Grayson concluded.