ATK were left stunned as they were defeated 4-1 by FC Pune City at home on Sunday. Coach Teddy Sheringham at the post match press conference expressed his displeasure,
“Can’t analyse what went wrong in the game straight away. They capitalized on our mistakes, but we didn’t capitalize on theirs. That’s all I can think now off the top of my head. Big margin at the end but it was a closely-fought game. We scored a fantastic free-kick but put ourselves under pressure again by conceding the second goal.”
Talking about they lost it right after Bipin Singh scored the equaliser, he said,
“We were back in the game with a fantastic free-kick by Bipin. Then we switched off and they got the corner and we went to sleep. No marking. Not great from our point of view. It’s something we need to work on.”
Defending keeper Debjit Majumdar who had an off day, coach stressed on the fact that, it’s a team effort and can’t blame the keeper for all the fault.
“You cannot put anything down to him. The first one was a good shot, can’t really blame him for that. The second one was a good header, the third one was a massive deflection and so was the fourth one. I have to see that again. We didn’t really protect him. Sometimes that happens in football. You’re left open as a keeper. It’s not always the goalkeeper’s fault.”
“We defend as a team and attack as a team. It’s not just the goalkeeper’s fault or the defence. We defend from the front. We need to do that all over the pitch. Switching off just after scoring a goal – that comes as a unit and not just the defence.”
Despite the loss, coach had positives to take from this match.
“As I said, I’m not really happy with stuff. But I thought we took the game to Pune. We played some fantastic football in the first half. It was one clearance down the line which we should’ve cleared with ease. It was a mistake. It was deadly. One chance and they scored from it. It put us under pressure but you have to look at how we started the game, how we took the game to Pune and how we dictated the play. Just one ball down the left-hand channel changes everything. That’s football, you have to deal with that.