Playing in their debut season in Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18, Jamshedpur FC will add another ‘first’ to their club when they host ATK on Friday at the JRD Tata Sports Complex, gifting the fans their first taste of Hero ISL football. After playing out two goalless draws in their first two fixtures of the season, the debutants will look to score their first-ever Hero ISL goal.

In the pre-match press conference, Jamshedpur’s head coach Steve Coppell was effusive when asked about the new Hero ISL venue. He said, “JRD Tata Sports Complex is unique, and it is very much associated with Tata and Jamshedpur. It is a very green area, and not like many other stadiums. This is a laid-back part of town, and there are fabulous sporting facilities here. The transformation that has happened within the stadium, I think it is a compliment to the people who have been working here for the past three or four months to make it happen. Now we have to contribute by developing ourselves into a team worthy of the town, and worthy of competing in the top league in India.”

He further added, “The thing is, the team hasn’t got an identity with the town yet. We have been away more than the time we have been here. So, we are still to get an identity with the town, and the team is to gain a real identity within the league. We will do that with performances. So, I am hoping that the people who come to Jamshedpur will appreciate what a nice town it is. We like to think that we would give all the visitors a warm welcome, and we are hoping that it would be a good game for everyone watching live.”

When asked how he evaluates his team’s performance in their previous two encounters and if that would affect the team’s overall strategy going forward, Coppell explained, “To go to NorthEast and then Kerala - they are always hard places to go to. Two difficult games, but we have come out with two points. We haven’t scored, but we haven’t conceded – there are some good and bad things in that. You can say, that in terms of points accumulation, to win one and lose one is probably better than drawing two, but psychologically, drawing two makes you feel a little bit better. There will be no change in strategy as such. We will play our way, and we are obviously looking to score goals. But all the teams in this league are good teams and are well organised. It will take a few weeks before everything settles down. It is our job to just be competitive, and get ourselves into the mix. In terms of injury, just Anas (Edathodika) is injured, and he won’t be fit to play. Everyone else is fit.”

Even though their opponents ATK haven’t had a satisfying start to their title defence, Coppell stuck to his opinion that it’s too early to write off a team like ATK. “After a couple of games, it is difficult to make a full-on assessment. It was a good result in their first opening game against Kerala in the league. They are champions of course, and they have rich ISL history. In the second game against Pune, who have probably the best attacking force in the ISL, it turned out to be a difficult game for them. They have some really big players, and are a team to be beaten,” he said. “In this case, it isn’t really a question of looking at the opposition, but, we have to look within ourselves, and make demands to try and improve, and be more active participants in this league as it progresses over the next couple of months.”

Accompanying his coach to the press conference was experienced midfielder, Mehtab Hossain who shared what it means to him to represent Jamshedpur, “Firstly, all of us in the squad are grateful that Tata picked us to play for the side. Secondly, we are all very excited. It would be a privilege to play in front of Jharkhand’s audience because they are sports lovers. I see, that when there’s a cricket match, the whole stadium is full, and I hope that there’s a good crowd for our football match too. We are excited too because we are going to create history for Jamshedpur FC. So, it feels good to be here.”