Mumbai City FC head coach Peter Reid was happy to see his side take a point away from a tough encounter against hosts FC Goa after the two sides battled to an entertaining 0-0 draw at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda today.“I thought it was two evenly matched teams. Both the defences were on top. We haven’t conceded a goal and from a defensive point of view, we’re delighted,” the English gaffer said at the post match press conference.Reid singled out Deepak Mandal, who was also in attendance at the press conference, for praise, for helping his team keep three consecutive clean sheets against tough opponents. He also added that the team missed André Moritz after the Brazilian playmaker was substituted early due to an injury. “We need a little bit more quality when we’re on the break and I think, without making excuses, that when Moritz went off with his hamstring, it was a blow for us. That went against us, really, but we still had chances to score on the break,” he stated.Mumbai have been rather inconsistent in the Hero Indian Super League with a few highs and lows but the Englishman was happy with his team’s progress in the tournament. “I think, yeah. The players have taken on board everything we’ve set defensively. Attacking wise, we’re lacking. We haven’t had our marquee player play, again, it’s no excuse. So others have had to come in a fill that spot and I can feel the confidence in my players and it shows out there on the pitch,” Reid said. He went on to cite the example of midfielder Jan Štohanzl who was unwell and yet agreed to play. “I intended to play Jan for only 45 minutes. But he ended up playing the entire 90 minutes. That just tells you what it means to the players,” he quipped.Reid also gave credit to Zico’s side for their display today. “As I said yesterday, they’ve played good football so far. Today, they were very strong at the back with two good centre halves and (Bruno) Pinheiro and Bikramjit (Singh) in midfield had excellent games. They have the basis of a really solid team. The keeper has a good presence about him as well. I think going forward, they will cause teams problems. When you don’t score goals, you suffer with your confidence and once they start scoring, I think Goa will be alright,” the former Manchester City manager averred.Full back Mandal said that the atmosphere and preparation for an ISL match is completely different from an I-League fixture as the gap between games is just a few days, which makes it tougher on the players. “It’s completely different. We don’t get too much time between matches,” he emphasised. “We’ve slowly started gelling better as compared to earlier. The coach’s philosophy is rubbing off on us. I will be a better player once the ISL is over.”
