Stephen Constantine calls for patience after second consecutive defeat

The Red & Golds are yet to win a game at home this season.

East Bengal faced its third consecutive defeat in Kolkata on Friday when it succumbed to Chennaiyin FC. The side from south defeated the Kolkata club by a slender margin of 1-0. It was a quite lacklustre game in which two clear-cut opportunities came to Stephen Constantine's side in the first half. However, they were not able to take any of those chances and conceded one in the second half.

Two players, namely Vafa Hakhamaneshi of Chennaiyin FC and East Bengal's Sarthak Golui, were sent off following two yellow cards offences. After the game, East Bengal head coach Stephen Constantine attended the post-match press conference and expressed his thoughts about the game. The following are edited excerpts from the conference.

Reaction to the defeat

Constantine expressed his opinion on the game. He rued his side's missed chances from the first half and said that things could have been different in case one of them was converted. "We had two or three chances, one of which was one-on-one with the keeper. But we did not put them away. We score one of those and it is 1-0 going into half-time, it is a different game. You can't legislate for that. We need to take care in front of the goal. We need to take our chances."

He continued, "In the second half, I admit we weren't very good. They get a cheap goal from a corner because we should not have conceded that goal. They had a player sent off so we had an advantage there for 10-15 minutes. And then we get a player sent off.

"You can't make those kinds of mistakes. It is childish mistakes that cost us the game. With back-to-back losses and a tough game coming up, it can be the third loss in a row. We have to be patient. We have to give the players time but everybody is running out of time."

How fortunes of East Bengal can change

The Englishman reiterated the fact that they are working hard to make things better and that is the only way by which the team will improve. He said, "The remedies are that we got to go back and work harder. It's my responsibility as I am the coach. We need to do things better, need to control the ball better, which we did not do today. We were playing very deep.

"The solutions that I gave at half-time worked for a bit in the second half. But you can see that the goal was disappointing. The solution is we need to work harder. We need to have the right players in the right positions. We tried Aniket up front, and we tried him wide. Can't say it was successful but we put in substitutes to try and change the game."

East Bengal forward line missing easy goals

Stephen Constantine expressed his views on the Red and Gold forwards missing easy goals. He said, "We worked to create those chances. We worked very hard in training to get the ball wide. But when you have a player one-on-one with the goalkeeper, three times actually (in today's game), and you don't score, then it is difficult to take. That did not help us today.

"We lost a game that we should win. In our mindset, we want to win home games. We didn't, we lost today. It is okay, we move on to the next game against Bengaluru (FC) next week."

If East Bengal needs to make changes to the squad

Constantine refuted any claim stating that East Bengal needs new players to get better results. He said that it is very premature to say such things right away. "We lost to Kerala in the last 15 minutes. In the second game, we destroyed FC Goa in the second half and still lost 2-1. The third game, we won. In the fourth game, we lost a derby, and in those games, you can win or you can lose.

"We lost today and it was us. We lost this game. So, I don't think we are in a bad shape. We are not in the best form. We are still working hard to try and change things for us. Last year we won one game in the whole season, the year before we won three."

He further said, "We need to stay calm, we need to stay committed, and we need to not panic. Everybody wants to change all the players because they had a bad game. Players will have bad games. Today, we did not play well in the second half. You cannot say that we played badly in the first half.

"We created two-three golden opportunities, but we did not take them. And we paid for those mistakes. So, I don't think we are a bad team. I think we need to do a lot of work. There's room for improvement and that's what we will try to do starting tomorrow."

If the team is missing the services of Alex Lima

Stephen Constantine said that even though Alex is a good player, he needs his entire team to get results. He gave examples of how East Bengal played in matches in which Alex did not play. "Alex got injured in the first minute of the game against FC Goa. He carried it for 75 minutes. The following game we won in which the team played well. Then we played ATK Mohun Bagan. The team played very well.

"He (Alex) has a small hamstring issue which is why he was not in the squad. Alex is a very good player. But we need all the players. Both foreign and Indian players."