Jamshedpur: After giving an absolute firecracker of a performance against Odisha FC, Jamshedpur FC cross swords with Bengaluru FC in an Indian Super League 2021-22 tie in Goa on Monday evening.
The Men of Steel are high on confidence and would like to do an encore in a tough outing. Head coach Owen Coyle wants to make sure his team is fresh and ready to give their best against Bengaluru.
"We'll approach the game the same way we did in the previous ones and it is really one game at a time because it's such a tight set of fixtures we have this season. We are coming in and out of frequent games which bring injury concerns as well, and we have that in almost every game, so it would be very naive to look too far ahead in the season," Owen said ahead of the match versus Bengaluru.
He added they have to focus on as and when the next game comes up. "We will have a tough game against Bengaluru FC and so we have to make sure we are fresh and ready to give our best. Of course, we feel it's a game we can win but I have to admit it is going to be a tough game as they are a very good side," the Scotland-born coach admitted.
On his thoughts on Greg Staewart's brilliant performance and if he is the best player in the league now, Owen said: "Well, Greg Stewart is a wonderful player. That's why I brought him to Jamshedpur football club and I told everybody in the pre-season about the qualities he has. It's nice when that's vindicated and everybody can see why we brought him here.
"He aspires to do even better than yesterday and still wants to give more to the team; I love that quality of his. It makes him a wonderful player both on and off the field. You can ask anybody in our squad and they will tell you he's got a lovely personality, a caring nature; he's a real team player. He's showing his quality on the field, he can easily score goals and even create goal-scoring chances for others equally. Greg works very hard with the ball and against the ball for the team which is exactly what we need in an attacking midfielder. So he's certainly a very good player. There are some fantastic players in the league and there’s no doubt Greg's certainly among one of the best," he added.
On the next game against Bengaluru FC considering their performance in the season so far, the highly-experienced Owen added: "I've always said this before that people always make quick judgements. They often judge on the final results, but if you actually look at the individual performance of Bengaluru FC, they could have won each and every game they played. They've been in control of games, but they have had luck go against them and have had bad decisions given that were unfair to them. So I'm under no illusions about the difficulty of this game against Bengaluru FC.
Jamshedpur are placed 3rd on the table with 11 points (6 matches, 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss) while Bengaluru are on the 10th spot with 5 points (7 matches, 1 win, 2 draws and 4 losses).
Jayesh Thaker
When chill sets in, Nobilians step in
Blankets being distributed Gautam Dey
Dhanbad: As coal town residents were sleeping amid the chill, a group of Nobilians who are also part of the Art of Living Dhanbad chapter came out of their houses and distributed blankets among the shelterless at different places across the district.
The drive that began last night at around 10 pm from Sahid Nirmal Mahto Memorial Medical College continued till 1 am during which over 200 blankets were distributed among the needy on the streets of commercial hub of Dhanbad, Bank More, Purana Bazar, Dhanbad Railway station, Hirapur, Bartand based bus depot and Jharia.
The drive launched last night under the leadership of Mayank Singh, a 1998 batch ICSE passout of De Nobili School CMRI, continued during the second day today also distributed around 60 blankets among the lepers at Karkend based Gandhi Gram Basti of Lepers.
Talking to The Telegraph Online on Sunday, Singh said, “We started the blanket distribution drive during last winter and carried out distribution of around 1000 blankets and in fact also celebrated the new year by cutting cake among rickshaw pullers and other daily wage earners”
“We will be continuing our drive this time till the first week of January next year (2022) as we believe that it is our responsibility to help the haven’t in our limited capacity of ours” said Singh.
Praduman Choubey
