Panaji (Goa) [India], February 2 (ANI): After suffering a loss against Jamshedpur FC in the Indian Super League (ISL), Odisha FC head coach Stuart Baxter said that his side made poor decisions on the field when it came to defending the ball.
Jamshedpur FC recorded a morale-boosting 1-0 win against Odisha FC in the ongoing seventh season of the ISL at GMC Stadium, Bambolim, on Monday.
Mohammad Mobashir Rahman scored a 41st-minute goal which proved to be the difference between the two sides, ending JFC’s five-game winless streak and keeping their playoff hopes alive.
“I’ll blame it on poor decision making in our defending, not brave enough in our build-up play and not keeping our balance and shape. I thought once we got into the final third our movement was quite good. As the game went further into the 90 minutes the level of nervousness goes up so you don’t play with the same precision. That’s also something. Lack of imagination is something I would like to criticise but I won’t blame,” said Baxter during the post-match press conference.
Odisha’s only win of the season had come against Kerala Blasters wherein they won the match 4-2. However, the side has been on a downward spiral since then and Baxter said that his team has not had luck in their favour.
“If you look at this game, there was this unbelievable decision of the referee to not give a penalty. We needed one of those decisions to go our way. Luck has gone against us, six or seven penalties have not been given to us. The goal that we gave away, we need to change that, we cant do that. Small things make a massive impact on our results,” said Baxter.
“We have run every team very close and even tonight it could have been one of those honourable 1-1 draw. But we need to turn them into wins and see if that momentum will take us somewhere in the closing stage of the season. These lads won’t lie down, I won’t lie down. We will get over this and we will get back to work and we promise to the fans we will do as well as we can in the rest of the season,” he added.
Odisha FC is currently placed at the bottom of ISL standings with 8 points from 14 matches. It will next take on ATK Mohun Bagan on Saturday. (ANI)