Chennaiyin FC’s head coach Owen Coyle said they thoroughly deserved to win three points after their 2-1 win against table-toppers Odisha FC in the 18th match week of the ongoing Indian Super League 2023-24 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Sunday.
Ankit Mukherjee scored in the sixth minute of the game to give a 1-0 lead to the hosts. However, Roy Krishna equalized for the Kalinga Warriors in the 78th minute. But the Marina Machans had the final laugh as Jordan Murray scored in injury time to help his team claim all three points.
In fact, the home team had only 41% possession but took eight shots on target, two more than the opposition. With this win, Chennaiyin FC was able to snap Odisha FC’s 13-match unbeaten streak.
“We knew that it was always going to be a tough game against a very good opponent. A team that has been the best in the league this year. That’s why they sit at the top of the standings,” Owen Coyle said in the post-match press conference.
The Scottish tactician feels his team was brilliant as they ticked the right boxes against a strong opposition.
“We were excellent tonight, and the performances that we’ve been delivering have been okay, and should have resulted in more points,” he stated.
“We played a good first half against Mumbai City FC and played well against East Bengal FC. There have been lots of nice performances, but when you don’t get points, of course, you leave yourself open to criticism. You’ll pick up points that leave you where you are; that’s why tonight was so important,” he continued.
“We set out a marker that showed we’re still very much in the fight. We’ve been totally written off by everybody. That’s fine. But they have only looked at the results; we’ll be playing performance-wise, and still, there is more to come. But we have to keep playing at that level. We have obviously now set ourselves up for another home game. We’ve got to keep persevering and keep working on the good things we speak about,” he further added.
Coyle added that his team’s objective is to always try to go for the win irrespective of a few negative results.
“After beating Kerala Blasters FC, we’ve lost to Mumbai City FC and East Bengal FC. But we picked ourselves up, and we pushed on because this team is kind of what we’re building in the long term. It’s a team that is designed to win games,” he commented.
“Ultimately, we’ve lost a few. But that’s because we go to try and win. It’d be easy to be very negative against Odisha FC, but we were very positive from the offset. We took the game to them. We are at home. We’re looking to build something here, and we will. We thoroughly deserve the three points, and Sergio Lobera admitted that himself. So, the great three points give us another chance to build on them in our next home game. We’ve given ourselves a chance for an exciting end to finish the season,” he shared.
Chennaiyin FC will next take on Hyderabad FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.
