ISL 2022-23: We still have a lot of work to do – Aidy Boothroyd after Jamshedpur FC win their first match

Previous season’s League Shield Winners Jamshedpur FC finally secured their first win of the season after beating NorthEast United by 1-0 at the JRD Tata Sports Complex, Jamshedpur on Sunday. Jamshedpur FC’s captain Patrick Hartley scored in the 30th minute for the team to help the club claim their first three points of the ninth season.

The team’s head coach Aidy Boothroyd was delighted with the team’s performance but admitted that they still have a lot of work to do in the upcoming matches.

Sharing his thoughts in the post-match press conference, Aidy Boothroyd said, “It was a good contest, a physical contest. For us, it’s a good win because it means we got three games and four points. That’s a respectable start, particularly against two teams that are amongst the top half of the league. In terms of this game, we knew it was going to be a tough game. They changed their system to playing a 5-4-1 which is difficult to break down, so the fact that we scored from a set play means that we deserved the win.”

Boothroyd didn’t agree with the fact that his team was playing on the defensive in the last 10-15 minutes of the game.

He said, “I don’t think we are defending in all the matches. Today as well, we had a chance where we could’ve scored and taken the score-line to 2-0 and it’s game over. Sometimes we do look to play on the counter-attack as we have fast players. I think when it’s your first home game in a while and the support is amazing from the crowd, it’s important to win the game and we know we have to get better. The majority of the time, we want to play on the front foot against opponents and we will get there.”

Boothroyd was also happy with the defense of the team in the previous matches against Odisha FC and Mumbai City FC. The Red Miners lost against Odisha FC by 3-2 but they secured a 1-1 draw against the Islanders.

Boothroyd concluded, “Against Odisha FC, there was a time when we decided to tie it up. The second game was against Mumbai FC, the team which had just won the double (in Hero ISL 2020-21)  and was good. We had a game plan to stop them and we did. Tonight, we wanted to seal the victory. We still have a lot of work to do, but we all are very happy for tonight. I thank all the supporters for the support tonight.”

Jamshedpur FC will next take on FC Goa at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Goa on Thursday.