East Bengal coach Trevor Morgan saddened by CCFC loss, faces ire from club secretary

TREVOR JAMES MORGAN LOOKED like a man who had been punched in the gut when he came to the post match press conference after East Bengal went down to Chennai City last night.

The last minute loss to CCFC meant the Red and Golds had failed to capitalize on a point drop by both Aizawl and Mohun Bagan to gain some momentum in the I-League title race. With 27 points from 14 matches, they are 3 points behind league leaders Aizawl FC.

A devastated Morgan walked in with the pressure of overwhelming expectations on his shoulder, and he lamented about a team who just could keep up with that,

"We conceded two goals due to mistakes that were inexplicable... we seem to have have this situations where our defenders don't do well against African strikers. We had to go for a win, and that's why towards the end of the game I pushed Bukenya ahead as an attacker, but that's when we got caught in the counter."

When asked if the international break would help him work on the mistakes and re-launch their title bid when the league finally resumes, he said,

"What can you do to fix goalkeeping errors like that?"

Meanwhile, East Bengal club secretary Kalyan Majumdar made yet another explosive comment criticising his own team and head coach,

"I knew this team wasn't going to make it... I hope that despite this lapse in performance the coach is going to Australia for vacation. I hope he has a good time over there."

Morgan was asked about his vacation after the CCFC match. He said,

"I will go to Australia as planned, what happened tonight does not change that."

When asked whether he thought East Bengal still had a chance to win the I-League this season, he said,

"To be lucky, you need to work hard. I don't think we have managed to do that... in crunch times like this you have to depend on more than just talent, this is when the character, the resilience and willpower of the players come to the fore. That hasn't happened much either... in the end we will end up where we deserve to finish."