A quest to better the past drives East Bengal coach Morgan as his boys face Shillong Lajong
YESTERDAY AT THE East Bengal practice session, an unsavoury incident left a bitter taste in everyone's mouth. Mehtab Hussain pulled off a particularly rough tackle of Lalrindika Ralte and the two almost came to blows. Newly appointed head coach Trevor James Morgan watched the whole thing from the sidelines with a frown.
All this is bound to worry the British coach, who has some personal fish to fry with Shillong Lajong. Never has he ever during his years of coaching at East Bengal and Dempo managed to score a win against Shillong Lajong. And it just so happened that his first match in charge - the last I-League match of East Bengal - was away to Lajong. And East Bengal lost that one.
But that was a season-ender and the outcome in that game wasn't going to affect East Bengal's position in the league table. Lajong, on the other hand, were fighting for survival. A loss would mean a certain drop into the 2nd Division. So the onus of producing a result was only on them that night. But that won't be the case tomorrow afternoon.
Today, the urge to do things differently was visible when the East Bengal team chose to reach the Meghalaya capital only by evening, less than 24 hours before the match was to start. Morgan's plan was to reach late and do a practice session early morning at 9 am on matchday (i.e. tomorrow). Giving the pre-match press conference a miss was an added bonus.
Although Lajong are unbeaten against the East Bengal coach, that is not the case with their record against East Bengal. Earlier this season they suffered a massive loss to the Red and Golds playing away from home. And last time these two clubs faced off against each other in this tournament was on a momentous occasion: the final of Federation Cup 2009-10. The match was goalless, and East Bengal won in penalties. That's the only time these two clubs have ever met in the Fed Cup; which means Shillong Lajong have never beaten East Bengal in India's biggest cup tournament.
But Lajong coach Thangboi Singto is keen to change that. Speaking to reporters before the game, he stressed on the need for his team to improve and not count on the last match's scoreline as an indicator of things to come,
"The good thing is that we are starting at home. The team spirit is always there in Lajong starting from first game of the season till the end. We have leadership and experience at one end, youth and talent at the other and that is the way Lajong has gone through this season. So going forward I think East Bengal has always been tough but the game we won in the last match was a bit lucky.”
East Bengal, meanwhile, are eyeing improvements of their own. They will be without the services of Bernard Mendy and Cavin Lobo who are out with injuries. That leaves them a bit soft in the midfield. So unless Do Dong-hyun and Harmanjot Singh Khabra step up tomorrow there may be a dearth of supply to Ranti Martins. And with a tough keeper to beat in Vishal Kaith, they will need to creat as many chances as possible.
Either way it's poised to be a great contest. Lajong will need to get a win out of this one if they are to harbour any hopes of making it to the semi-finals. And even a draw will be a good result for East Bengal considering they will have the home leg to go all out and finish the job. And playing away to East Bengal has not been a great experience for Shillong Lajong in recent times.
