I think we helped FC Goa tonight, says JFC coach Aidy Boothroyd

The Men of Steel suffered their second loss of the campaign.

FC Goa were too strong for Jamshedpur FC in the Indian Super League as they secured a comfortable 3-0 win over the visitors at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Goa, on Thursday. Goals from Iker Guarrotxena, Noah Sadaoui and Brison Fernandes were enough to collect three points for Carlos Pena’s men. As for Aidy Boothroyd, the start to his life as JFC head coach has been tough.

This was the club’s second defeat in four games and the pressure to replicate last year’s performance increased even further. The tactician interacted with the media after the humbling defeat where his team was second best in almost every department.

Here are the excerpts from the conversation.

Takeaways from the game

Talking about the possible learnings from the match, Aidy Boothroyd said, “We worked very hard on our game plans, depending on our opponents. FC Goa are a good team. We had a plan for them, and within 4-5 minutes, the plan is out of the window so we have to adapt and improvise. I was much happier with the performances individually and collectively in the second half.”

“This is what football can be like for a head coach. One minute you are winning and the next minute you are not and you got to be able to come back fighting and that is what we intend to do,” he added.

Also Read:

• FC Goa earn dominating win over Jamshedpur FC at home
• Ratings: Iker Guarrotxena shines as FC Goa drub Jamshedpur FC

Not the day at office

The tactician believes that his team created chances but did not convert them and that the FC Goa goalkeeper also had a hand in it. He said, “I thought we created a lot of chances, four or five chances in the second half. We have to give credit to the goalkeeper again who managed to keep them out. I would be really worried if we were conceding goals and had no chance of coming back into the game. But sometimes it is not your day and unfortunately, it wasn’t today.”

Helping the opposition?

The larger theme of the game was that Jamshedpur FC gave away easy chances to FC Goa. This was also a reason behind the home crowd cheering with energy for their team. He said in this regard, “I think we helped FC Goa tonight. The crowd, like any football crowd, wants to get going and wants to be excited and we gave them the opportunity to score two goals and I think when you do that, any crowd is going to be be up. So, we would love to do the same at our place.”

Learning from mistakes

In conclusion, Aidy Boothroyd said that it is a long season and he took away positives from tonight’s performance nonetheless. He asserted, “It is a long season and you learn a lot of lessons as you go along. I have certainly learnt something positive tonight - some of the players that were on the fringe and squad players that came in and did well. We will need them, we will need every player. We are disappointed, but can’t do much about it now. We should have started correctly. Tonight was an unforced error on our account.”