Bengaluru FC veteran goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu revealed that this season has been one of his better seasons in terms of consistency and stated that he wants to be better at it in the upcoming games. Sandhu will aim to keep another clean sheet in their upcoming game as his side squares off against Hyderabad FC in matchweek 12 of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2022-23 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.

Sandhu’s tremendous efforts in front of the goal have been overshadowed by the fine margins by which the team has lost games. Keeping his third clean sheet of the season in the previous game against Jamshedpur FC, the shot-stopper wants his side to build on that win and try to replicate the results in the second half of the season to advance higher up the table.

The 30-year-old also opened up on his side’s defensive issues and spoke on his way of tackling them as he addressed the media alongside head coach Simon Grayson in the official pre-match press conference.

Here are the excerpts from Gurpreet’s press conference:

With a clean sheet in the last match against Jamshedpur FC, do you think you can build up on that?

Sandhu: I really hope so. It's good to get a clean sheet and a win at home, which we were not able to do against ATK Mohun Bagan. As you asked, we need to build up on this because if we want to further progress in the season, we need to take that win in our stride. (We need to) make sure that we are strong at the back and provide as much support as we can to our front players, to our midfielders, and not worrying too much about what will happen in defence. And hopefully, we replicate that result with more goals on Friday.

What has been the assessment of your performances this season?

Sandhu: For me personally, it's been pretty consistent. If I compare it with all of the seasons that I have played, obviously with time, with more experience, and knowing how much training and what kind of thing works out for me. To be able to perform on the pitch gets better with more information and I think for me personally, this has been one of the better years for me in terms of performing consistently be it in training or in games.

Defensively, Bengaluru FC have been a strong unit and have conceded few goals. What do you attribute this to? How is the communication with the defenders? Is it frustrating when things don’t go well?

Sandhu: I try to not get frustrated by that because as a player on the pitch, if you start getting affected by what your teammates are doing further up the pitch - that’s just me - it starts to make you not concentrate about what you are supposed to do when called into action. So, I try to look at it but have a disconnect, so that I'm in the game as well, and the communication bit has been good with the defenders.

Obviously there are moments where everything is not going to work out for you, there are moments where games have been that we've done really well for a huge amount of time, and then there is one small moment which makes things go the other way.

But overall, I've been very happy with the set of players that I have in front of me and we try to build on that. In training also we have the same kind of commitment that's why I think in games, we have been doing well defensively. It's all about confidence and consistency, if the players are consistent, day in, day out, week in, week out. We are better on all frontiers.

Going into the second half of the season, is there a room or a gap between you guys that the team can come together and still make this happen and go on a good run of games similar to last season’s run of games?

Sandhu: I definitely hope so. The thing is everyone, I think, is getting those errors, those mistakes that we have made in the past 10 games out of the system. Hopefully, we can build on that, and I think if everyone performs consistently enough for the next games coming up, I think we have a very good chance to make things right and try to finish as high as possible in the table.