SHILLONG, APR 13: Sixth placed Mumbai football club will pull out all its arsenals against Shillong Lajong, who will be playing its last home game at the JN stadium under the floodlight on Sunday evening, and try to get over its lose to Mohan Bagan in their last outing. But it will not be an easy outing for the Mumbaikers, as Shillong Lajong will have the advantage of playing in front of home crowd that turns out in large number to provide the booster to the team.
Sunday’s tryst between the two teams in the I-League promises to be nothing less than an exciting game as both the teams will play to win and pocket the full three points.
Eleventh placed Shillong Lajong will certainly try and make amend for the draw against the ONGC and provide the fans with euphoric moment they have all been looking for even in the last match that ended in a draw. Each time the team play, the football loving fans of Shillong Lajong have filled the stadium to the brim, now the team has the onerous task of giving its loyal fans the much needed win on home ground.
Even the Mumbai football club manager Henri acknowledges the unstinted support of the Lajong fans to its team. During a pre-match press conference at Cloud Nine on Saturday afternoon he told reporters, “The crowd support for the Shillong Lajong is phenomenal and it will certainly be challenging to outplay the local outfit with so much of fans support.” But he promise that his team will play to win and said Sunday match against Lajong should be an exciting good game.
Henri should know as the Mumbai FC had played Lajong two years ago in the same venue and for the Mumbaikers, who are habitual playing in mostly empty stadium, the huge turnout was surprising.
The fear of being placed in the danger zone in the I-League is certainly going to galvanize the Shillong Lajong players to play to its full potential. As the Shillong team has fared quite well against strong teams lately, coach Thongboi Singto is confident that his boys are going to come up with a winner of a performance.
Planning to bring up-front support against the Mumbaikers, Thangboi informed that the Shillong Lajong would rather play defensive initially and then launch a counter attack at a later stage of the game.
Speaking about the last match against ONGC, Thongboi said more concentration from his boys would have change the result. Nonetheless, he said the players had given their best and as a coach, it was his job to keep them motivated.
With regards to the “referee decision” in the last game, Thangboi understandably refused to comment and instead said that if there was any decision that favoured the team then his club would have got more points.
For the Mumbai football club the worrying point for the Sunday clash against Lajong is the fitness level of its players. Henri said that during the team last outing against Mohan Bagan, which the team lost by 2-3, result in injury of some his players. He, however, said that he will be able to decide only tomorrow in the composition of his team.
Saying that the his team has performed better than in the last season, Henri however said that the team is yet to reach its cherish goal that they set for themselves.- By Sandeep Rana
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