xtratime Logo

[caption id="attachment_12470" align="alignnone" width="960"] East Bengal and Lajong in a press meet ahead of the encounter on Sunday. Image Source: Shillong lajong FC[/caption] Internet Desk:  East Bengal coach Trevor James Morgan has urged his footballers to remove the 1-5 thrashing against Lajong last season in Shillong from their minds ahead of their last I League encounter. He has asked his players to look forward and concentrate on this match. In the first leg at Barasat under former coach Biswajit Bhattacharya, the Red and Gold brigade defeated the highlanders 4-0 with Ranti Martins scoring a hat trick. Trevor Morgan too is desperate for a win against Lajong and end the league on a high which will give them motivation for Federation Cup.

On being asked whether he is feeling nostalgic to seat at the Red and Gold reserve bench, the gaffer said over phone to xtratime.in ,” It is nothing like that. I want to begin my second stint with a win which each and every coach wants.” 

Penn Orji who last played under Morgan in East Bengal is very well known to the British coach. He said,” I have no idea about Lajong as a team. But as I have heard from others, they are a good side. Penn is a good player. Brazilian Uilliams cannot be written off too.”

East Bengal will be without the services of Narayan Das due to card issues and Frenchman Bernard Mendy due to injury. Midfielder Sehnaj Singh has also been omitted from the side. Arnab Mondal will be returning in the eleven after suspension and it is certain that he is going to captain the side.

On being asked whether he will play all the three foreigners from the beginning, the gaffer replied,” The match is scheduled to start from 7:05 p.m tomorrow. It is quite a long time left. The players are physically fit but mentally where they are standing at this moment, I do not know. I will discuss with them and then decide the playing XI.”

Post the I League break, Lajong played two home matches against Aizawl FC and Mohun Bagan, and played two away games against Sporting Clube and Mumbai FC.

The team earned one victory at home with one draw and was in top four with 15 points in the I-League table, before the team travelled to Goa and Mumbai where things didn’t go down too well. The team suffered two losses with a score line of 5-2 and 2-1.

Due to their lack of confidence in front of goal the team now sees themselves lying in the danger zone along with Mumbai FC, Salgaocar FC and Aizawl FC, facing relegation threats. Hence the match on Sunday is a must win game for Lajong.

With a squad dominated by the youngsters and a few experienced players, the Lajong Gaffer believes that the team has done well this season but was unlucky on many occasions. The other problem that Lajong faced was the lack of goals coming from the players and Singto had said time and again that it is imperative to find the goals because they help the team to win matches. Thirdly, injuries have also been another major cause that pulled Lajong from maintaining consistency when they had the chance to do so. They have played most of their games with either just one or two foreigners.

Japanese defender Yusuke Yamagata and Captain Aibor Khongjee who was injured during national duty was ruled out for the rest of the season and missed many key matches. Hence the team continued to rely on their academy boys to play in the defense position namely, Samuel Shadap, Nim Dorjee Tamang, Chinglensana Singh and Pritam Kumar.