An intense matchday, filled with a barrage of attacks from both sides and some tough decisions by the referee, came to an end with Jamshedpur and Hyderabad walking away with 1 point each... and the Gaffer had a lot to say about the team's third fixture.

Here are the excerpts from the post-match press conference: 

On if the pace of Hyderabad caught Jamshedpur off guard...

Hyderabad have got some good young Indian players. They have played very well this season and they deserve an honest credit for that. But their pace didn't catch us off. In the first half, we didn't play that well and there wasn't much for us in the first half. Hyderabad maybe were a little bit better, but they also barely had any chances.

The second half saw us having much more intensity. We could have even taken the lead. And then the goal we conceded we could have done better with it. But then, that being said, from that point on the team was trying a lot to get back into the game and win the game. We scored a perfectly good goal, the Referee awarded the goal and then the linesman invented a handball that never existed. So, it's absolutely ridiculous. But we never let our heads drop. We picked ourselves up and we went again and we feel we could have won the game the way we played in the second half.

On if there was a conscious change in-game plan after going 1-0 down and Hyderabad attacking from the flanks...

Not really, Hyderabad were playing well on the counter. I think during the game, even though Hyderabad were breaking again and again, we were the one forcing everything on. We scored 2 perfectly good goals in the game but only one of them was allowed. We had numerous other chances too. The second half was much better for us and that's how it needs to be moving on.

On what was said at half time...

The first half was nowhere near good enough and at the break I let the players know that in the dressing room. In the end, we want to show that spirit, intensity, and desire that we want to be known for. We did that in the second half and looked so much better. And we feel we could have won the game. We could have easily been sitting on 6 or 7 points in the league at the moment. And of course, there are a lot of things still to work on. But there has been a lot of spirits and hard work. And we need to start doing even more to pick up those valuable 3 points instead of drawing games.

On if it was one point gained or two points dropped...

It was a great opportunity to grab 3 points as it was the other night vs Odisha where we were 2-0 up and had a couple of refereeing decisions that weren't awarded correctly (ball handled by an Odisha player in the box - a sure-shot red card and Rehenesh being punished severely).

But that being said, it's all about margins in the game and we have to be on the right side of these margins to win games.

On what will it take to avoid conceding goals...

Very simply, better defending. From the wide areas, we cannot be allowing shots coming onto our goal like that. But that being said, the shot was pushed back by Pawan and it fell to Aridane who punished us. That's a simple answer to that - better defending. We have to make sure we are more solid against the ball.

But what we have shown is that we can score goals. We have been a threat going forward, so if we can fix the problems defensively, we will avoid conceding.

On Isaac's omission from the first XI...

Well, it was Isaac's third game in eight days like it was for a lot of players. He had a little niggle. Isaac did really fine when he came on, as did Aniket and both were impact subs today. But this is something that needs to be done from the start and not when the subs are coming in. Isaac and Aniket did well and showed that little bit of quality that they have. In fact, all the boys that came off the bench made an impact when they were brought on and had a positive impact on the game.

On if he feels hard done by Hartley's disallowed goal...

I need to be careful about what I say as I could get into trouble, but anybody who has seen that would say that it was a goal. The Referee has seen that and the linesman has invented a handball that didn't exist. My question is how can he make something like that up. It doesn't even look like a handball though. So, I don't feel hard done by, instead, I feel as if we have been robbed because that's what's happened there. And whatever he has seen, I don't know how he has seen. But it was definitely wrong.