By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Riding high after its impressive win over Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan in the season opener, a confident Shillong Lajong FC would take on Salgaocar in a second round match of the I-League at the JN Sports Complex here on Friday.
The Reds would look to continue their good run especially against the Goan side which has been unbeaten against the team from northeast in the last five encounters between the two sides.
Despite a loss against United Sikkim in the last match, Salgaocar would be a force to reckon with as coach Karim Bencherifa would like to get back to winning ways sooner than later.
However, it would not be easy for the Goans to take on the in-form Reds who would be cheered by thousands of vocal fans for whom the contest could not have come sooner.
The Salgoacar coach would also have his task cut out as almost half the players in the squad are new signings.
For the home team, which has gelled well since Scotsman Desmond Bulpin took over, there are lots of positives going into the match. Bulpin has brought a sense of belief among the players to give their best against the top sides. This factor was clearly missing in the last season.
With a solid defense line featuring new signing North Korean Minchol Son and the reliable Wailadmi Passah, SLFC can definitely look forward to create another upset on Friday.
However, the worrying factor for the both the teams are injuries to some of their key players.
For Salgoacar, Gilbert Oliveira, Milagres Gonsalves and Anthony D’ Souza will miss out due to injuries while Lajong’s Sushil Kumar Singh is doubtful for Friday’s match. Besides Sushil, defenders Govind Singh and Chitrasen Singh have not yet recovered from their injuries.
Speaking at the pre-match conference, SLFC coach Desmond Bulpin said that the team is pretty confident ahead of the crucial encounter. “We would like to win our second consecutive match at home. But the players would have play out of their skins to defeat Salgaocar,” Bulpin said.
“Hopefully we can make their (Salgaocar’s) trip an unpleasant one,” he added.
Bulpin was also confident that despite Sushil struggling with an injury, he would be able to field the same team which defeated Mohun Bagan.
Meanwhile, Salgaocar coach Karim Bencherifa was upset with I-League fixture which makes his side paly two back-to-back matches in the northeast.
He was however quick to clarify that the schedule was in no way an excuse for the team’s bad performance.
Bencherifa also said that every time a new season starts he has to build his team from the scratch.
“For the past three seasons I had to build a new team every time. But continuity in is important for good results,” he said.
Bencherifa pointed out that even for this season in a team of about 40 players, 20 are new players promoted from the club’s youth development team. Bencherifa, meanwhile, said that it would be advantage Lajong given the home support the team is expected to get.