Ishan Pandita scored the lone goal of the match in the 88th minute as he got on the end of a Greg Stewart corner kick from the left flank and headed home at the near post.
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Jamshedpur FC boss Owen Coyle was delighted with his team’s performance in the 1-0 win against SC East Bengal and wants his side to “grow and develop at the end of the tournament. The win helped Jamshedpur FC to the summit of Indian super League (ISL) points table. Ishan Pandita scored the lone goal of the match in the 88th minute. The game saw East Bengal become the first-ever side to field an all-Indian starting XI in the history of the ISL. The win helped Men of Steel to 19 points from 11 games, one above second-placed Kerala Blasters, who play Odisha FC on Wednesday.
Ishan Pandita got on the end of Greg Stewart corner kick from the left flank and headed home at the near post. It was a typical Number nine’s goal.
When asked about Pandita, Coyle said after the match: “He’s just a wonderful player. He’s going to get better and to be fair, is working his socks off to getting into that starting lineup. He would have been there but he had a bit of an injury. But now you see he’s is free-flowing and moving well in the field with a couple of chances before they actually got the goal. But the header, I mean he’s a natural finisher. “
He added “And as I mentioned there, if I can continue to have him here, I can help him to improve his game. I mean, the national team is going to have fantastic number nine, that’s for sure. But he’s wonderful to work with, he’s got a great attitude. He’s a great kid, the players, everybody, adored him because of his qualities and as a team player. So I can’t speak highly enough about him and you know, he really matters to them. He’s a wonderful talent. A brilliant header and that’s what he can do, he’s a wonderful player.”
Meanwhile SC East Bengal came out with a clear gameplan to defend deep and hit the opposition on the counter. The Red and Gold brigade did that to good effect as they managed to keep the score at 0-0 for a long time until Pandita broke the deadlock.
The English tactician said that: “SCEB has drawn four of the previous five games against Kerala Blasters FC, Mumbai City FC, Hyderabad FC, and Bengaluru FC the only game they lost in the five games was against Northeast United FC when the man was sent-off. SC East Bengal have shown that how tough is to beat them.
He continued “it took us late in the day, we could easily score three, four, or five goals with the chances that we had, but a couple of saves, good defending by SCEB stopped us. But the important thing is you got to be patient, not get frustrated.”
Jamshedpur FC are back in action on Monday as they take on fellow semi-final contenders Hyderabad FC. SC East Bengal will face FC Goa on January 19 which will see head coach Marco Rivera take charge of the team for the first time.
