Sporting desperate for their first win

Shillong: After a great start to their I-League campaign, Shillong Lajong will host Sporting Clube de Goa in a third round match here at JN Sports Complex, on Sunday (October 28).

Lajong defeated Mohun Bagan 2-0 in their first match to give their campaign a dream start and then held Salgaocar SC 1-1 in the next match. On the other hand, it has not been easy for the Goa side, who were thrashed to a 0-5 defeat against Dempo in their round II match. In round I, they managed to hold East Bengal 0-0.

However, coach Soibam Ekendra feels that they were little unlucky to go down so badly in the last match.

“All our foreign recruits have been unfit so far. That has upset our plans quite a bit,” observed Ekendra. Sporting Clube de Goa have missed the service of all their foreign players in the first two matches of this I-League.

But, he is in no mood to look back at their performance so far. They have defeated Churchill Brothers 2-0 in a Goa Professional League match last week and the coach is more interested in taking inspiration from that victory.

“We deserve to win three points tomorrow and the result against Churchill has lifted the morale of the team,” Ekendra sounded confident.

“We will definitely put up a good fight and also try to adjust with the cold weather here,” he added. With winter knocking on the doors, the temperature is dipping quite steeply in Shillong and that can surely be a spot of bother for the Goan side.

“We have come from hot weather and it’s quite cold here. I hope the boys will overcome this hurdle”, the coach said.

Lajong, on the other hand, is expected to attract capacity crowd on Sunday afternoon. They will look to attack from the first minute and will be desperate to pocket vital three points from this home match.

British coach Desmond Bulpin said all the players are available for Sunday’s encounter.

“We will play our normal game and hope to present a good match to our fans,” Desmond said after team’s training.

The kick-off is at 2:30 pm.