ISL 2022-23: I am proud of my boys, it was a great win – Stephen Constantine

East Bengal FC head coach Stephen Constantine was delighted after his team defeated NorthEast United FC by 3-1 at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, Guwahati on Thursday. This is East Bengal’s first win of the season after they lost their opening two matches against Kerala Blasters FC and FC Goa.

Cleiton Silva provided the lead to the visitors as he scored in the 11th minute of the game. Subsequently, Charalambos Kyriakou scored for the Red and Gold brigade in the 52nd minute. O’Doherty was able to put the game to bed as he found the back of the net in the 84th minute to give a 3-0 lead to his team.

However, Derbyshire scored the compensation goal in the 90th minute for the Highlanders.

Stephen Constantine said in the press conference, “​​A lot has been said about the first two games and how we have played. We are still finding our feet, we’re still trying to find the right balance. We played well for periods in the first game against Kerala Blasters FC, then in the second half against FC Goa we played really well. Today we started well and finished well, I am very proud of the boys. The performance was good and it was a great win. Now that we’ve got that out of the way we look forward to the next game.”

East Bengal conceded when they were up by 3-0 at the fag end of the match. However, Constantine was not majorly upset by the same as the game was already done and dusted.

Constantine said, “Honestly, we are upset to have conceded a goal from set play. But look it was three-nil and everyone looked tired with the game as good as done. It is a silly lapse in concentration, but it is a little blemish if you like three-nil better than three-one but it’s okay, not much concerned about it.”

Constantine added that his team is in a rebuilding state and they are slowly building their confidence. The gaffer admitted his side is in a work in progress state and wants his players to keep giving their best.

He said, “No, it started in the first game of our Hero ISL season. We faced Kerala Blasters FC and for 70 minutes, we were good enough to prevent them from scoring, and later we lost our shape and they scored. Against FC Goa, we were very good in the second half, not so much in the first half. But, it is a process where you cannot produce winning teams in two, three, four or five games. This takes time and I know people might bring this up as an excuse, but it is not an excuse, it is a fact. If we look all over the world how long it takes teams to build, we are in that stage of rebuilding. This was a great win for us. Am I happy? Yes. Are we the finished article? Absolutely not, there is plenty more to come and we will continue to improve.”

East Bengal FC will face ATK Mohun Bagan in the Kolkata derby on 29th October at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata.