Panaji
Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham was pleased to keep a clean sheet in a 2-0 win over FC Goa in their Indian Super League (ISL) match at the Athletic Stadium in Bambolim, Goa on Saturday. Mehtab Singh (35′) headed the Islanders into the lead in the first half and a second was added by Diego Mauricio (86′) late in the game to secure the three points.
“I didn’t know the result of the other game before we kicked off, it’s not important for me what other teams are doing, the main thing is that we focus on what we were doing. And tonight, it was important that we come away with a win, and not only have we done that we’ve come away with a clean sheet,” said Des Buckingham in a post-match press conference, as per the ISL website. “FC Goa is a wonderful team, they play some good possession-based football. And we knew that obviously they are out of semi-finals and they’d give games to two players that maybe have not played so much. That’s always a challenge in itself because they want to come in and prove that they’re capable of planning this level,” he added.
Regarding the upcoming games, the head coach said that all the players are ready and really looking forward to the clash. “That’s very exciting. They’re the two games that you look forward to. We’ve played both of them already. They’re very good teams. I’ve spoken about coming into the back end of the season with momentum, you know, we’ve won four and five now two consecutive clean sheets. And we’ve got all our players fresh and ready to go again. We’re looking forward to the next game,” said the head coach.
This win puts defending champions back in the semi-final race, as they stand fourth in the league table with 31 points from 18 matches. While the Gaurs stay at ninth position.
