ISL 2022-23: We are giving ourselves a fighting chance: Bengaluru FC’s Simon Grayson on qualifying for the playoffs

Bengaluru FC head coach Simon Grayson expressed confidence that his team can qualify for the playoff stages in the ongoing ninth edition of the Hero Indian Super League 2022-23. The Blues improved their chances of finishing in the top six after a convincing win of 3-0 against Jamshedpur FC at the JRD Tata Sports Complex, Jamshedpur on Wednesday.

Rohit Kumar continued his good form for the visitors as he scored in the seventh minute of the game to put his team in front. Roy Krishna then doubled the team’s lead in the 34th minute of the game while Sivasakthi Narayanan ended any chance of Jamshedpur FC coming back into the game as he found the back of the net in the 63rd minute.

With this win, Bengaluru FC climbed to seventh place in the standings after their sixth win of the season in 15 matches.

“Full credit to Jamshedpur FC that they asked questions of us. You know that it is going to be a physical contest, you got to defend well in the 18-yard-box because (they have got) big strong, powerful players, and we did that. They tested us with a lot of corners early on but we were strong. And then we got a really good goal which we are capable of doing to teams on the counter attack. And then we settled down a lot better and then for Roy to hit that fantastic strike is something that he has been doing a lot in training,” Grayson stated at the post-match press conference.

“We did stress at half-time that we have to be better than the first half and try to get that third goal and we certainly did with Siva (Sivasakthi). That gave us breathing space. But full credit to the players, they kept working right till the very end. They wanted to keep a clean sheet. The defenders defended really well in the 18-yard box because a lot of questions were asked in there – corners, set pieces, crosses into the box. But every centre-back and defender did really well,” he added.

Meanwhile, Bengaluru FC currently has a goal difference of -3 and Grayson feels it will take care of itself if they do a good job in the upcoming matches.

“If we are good enough to get into the playoffs, that will take care of itself. The last thing we want to do is potentially miss out on getting into the playoffs by goal difference and that’s what could happen. That is why I was a little critical of the players because we allowed Jamshedpur FC chances later on and maybe we didn’t take our chances. Because come the end of the season, that could play a massive part,” he stated.

“It’s certainly what the players are aware of. But we are giving ourselves a fighting chance. We have got five games to go against teams around us and we’re playing with confidence, but we need to concentrate on the next game. We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. It’s nice to be sitting here after winning a few matches because it has not been an easy season,” Grayson added.

Bengaluru FC will next take on ATK Mohun Bagan on 5th February at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata.