ISL 2019 | Phil Brown hails team's character; John Gregory rues defensive mistakes

Pune showed incredible resolve to come back from a goal down to turn the heat on hosts Chennaiyin and seal an impressive 2-1 win. The win not only handed Pune three points on the night but also kept their chances of making the playoffs alive. After a dominant first half, Pune found themselves behind in the game when CK Vineeth jumped on a deflected ball to place the ball past Kamaljit Singh in the Pune goal. 

However, the game turned in a matter of a minute when Marcelinho scored two quickfire goals, the second coming off the Chennaiyin kickoff, to hand the hosts the advantage. Brown, who was managing his first game in the ISL, hailed his team’s character for coming back from the deficit to get all three points.

"There’s a statistic in the game of football that 75% of teams who score first don’t lose the game. We just showed in respect to that statistic that we have character in the team. We have strength in character,” Brown said during the post-match press conference, reported the ISL website.

"I think the timing of the equaliser and then the timing of the second goal was important. If the game goes on, then it brings more anxiety and tension and more nerves. But we scored at the right time. Having conceded a poor goal, we scored at the right time. Having gone a goal behind, to have the strength in character to win a game from that position is something to be proud of.”

After Pune had started off with a flurry of chances in the first half, Chennaiyin FC boss John Gregory had come off as an irritated figure on the sidelines. He even went all the way back to the dressing room with five minutes to go but had to return as Chennai had to go through an injury scare. However, once his side had the lead, they gave away two easy goals which sparked a passionate response from the Englishman. 

"You can always talk about people who are not there, but it is the people who are there who have the opportunity to stake a claim for themselves, for their career. People who come into the team, I’ve always said, do your best and if you’re successful, you’ll play again next week. The people that you have should perform well," Gregory said after the game.

"And today, when we were 1-0 up, there was only one team who were ever going to win it, which was us. We were totally in control of the game. And we gave away two goals that I doubt you’d even see on a school playground. They were very bad goals to give away from our point of view. Up until that point, there was just a question of how many we were going to get because we were totally in control of the match. This is football, you make mistakes, you get punished for it."

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