ISL 2022-23: We were the better team than Mumbai City FC – East Bengal FC head coach Stephen Constantine

East Bengal FC head coach Stephen Constantine feels they were the better team than Mumbai City FC after beating the League Shield champions by 1-0 at the Mumbai Football Arena on Sunday.

Naorem Mahesh Singh scored in the 52nd minute for the visitors after receiving a pass from Cleiton Silva to give a decisive lead to his team. The visitors took five shots on target and they were able to get three crucial points from the game.

Constantine was delighted with the performance of his players against the Islanders.

“I’m delighted with the performance of our players and they played from start to finish. I thought we were the better team. Obviously congratulations to Buckingham and staff for winning the shield, which is a great achievement but delighted to be the first team to beat them at home with a clean sheet,” Constantine said in the pre-match press conference.

“I have to give these boys credit because they have fought with whatever they have there. They know they’re not the best players in the league, but they have given everything for me and I appreciate that and we look forward to the big one, the derby,” he added.

With this win, East Bengal now has their best points tally in the Hero ISL with six wins in 19 matches. The Kolkata-based club has 19 points under its belt.

East Bengal’s last league stage match of the season will be against derby rivals ATK Mohun Bagan on Saturday.

“I know what the derby means to everybody. It’s an important game. We want to win it. We will try to win it and it will be, as it always is, a really tough, difficult, hard fought game and I hope that we take the confidence from the performances like today, against Kerala Blasters FC and Jamshedpur FC, where we have shown that we are more than capable of beating anybody on our day, we beat Mumbai with a full team in Durand Cup, When we keep their shape, we will have the result,” he commented.

Meanwhile, Constantine’s contract will expire in May and he said he has no problems if the top brass is not happy with his performance.

“My contract finishes in May and if people are unhappy with my performance I have no problems. I will have offers here in India and outside but if you keep changing the coach, don’t expect to win too many matches in football. We (EBFC) have changed 10 coaches in the last four years. We lost some players who had interest in coming to East Bengal FC because I couldn’t tell them that I am here next season, for sure,” he said

“If you keep changing the coach, that means you want to change the players, you’re going to change the formations, the staff and there’s no consistency and this is what the problem is generally in football. Find the right guy, if I’m not the right guy, no problem. But give the guy two years, three years and then you judge him,” he concluded.