Hyderabad FC emerged on the wrong side of a 3-1 scoreline against Chennaiyin FC at the G.M.C. Balayogi Athletic Stadium on Friday. Phil Brown’s men never really got going in the encounter and they conceded twice before half-time which by and large took the game away from them. Marcelo Pereira did manage to get on the scoresheet, but the strike was nothing more than a consolation on a night to forget for Brown and Co.

At the post-match press conference, the Hyderabad head coach began by providing an update on striker Bobo, who was substituted just after the hour mark. He said, “His (Bobo’s) hamstring tightened. At the moment, it’s just tightening up. A few games in a few days and it was precautionary. But the way he came out, the way he went off the field of play, that was the right decision. I never take Bobo off. I think he is a goal threat. The decision was purely down to the fact that we got six more games and Bobo wants to play in all of them. Whether he is going to be fit for the next game, I don’t know yet.”

The Englishman also refused to believe that Bobo’s subdued performance was the reason behind his team’s showing. Brown explained, “I wouldn’t say that Bobo’s performance was the reason why we went 2-0 down. I wouldn’t say Bobo’s performance was the reason why we lost the game. I think space became evident towards the end of the game, which is normal. We did start creating chances but as soon as the third goal went in, the game was done. We kept going. Marcelo scored his goal and he had a couple of opportunities from outside the box.”

“(But) we got to stop making mistakes. It doesn’t matter who is making the mistakes. It’s careless. It could be a young player one week, it could be an old player the next week, a goalkeeper one day and a striker the next day. So, we are all making mistakes and we are all responsible for those mistakes. We got to understand that at 1-0 down, the game’s still alive. To go quickly 2-0 down before half-time, dampens the spirit and confidence. We have to pick ourselves up and go again. The group mentality to going behind is not right. It’s something that we have to address,” added Brown.

Finally, the Hyderabad FC head coach urged his players to work even harder in training and end their barren run of clean sheets. “We just got to keep working hard. We got to keep our concentration levels high. We got to keep on working hard in training. We got to keep practising what we believe in. The season has gone from bad to worse. It’s one mistake after another. We got to cut out our mistakes. We might get a clean sheet and might get a decent performance,” commented Brown.

Read the Match Report here.