Pailan Arrows hope to fight against Salgaocar

Kolkata: Defending champions Salgaocar will look forward to continue their good run when they take on a win-less Pailan Arrows in their return leg 18th round I-League fixture at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan on Thursday.

The Arrows, which lost the last match against Mohun Bagan but not before a tough fight, are struggling to get a win by converting their chances upfront. Arrows goalkeeping Coach Tanmoy Basu, however, said they were ready to face the mighty Goan challenge. "Undoubtedly Salgaocar are a champion side, whom you can’t take lightly. But our team is not any runover team. We put up a good fight against Mohun Bagan, if we would have been able to convert the chances which came our way, the story would have been different," he said. There is not much difference between the two teams but the foreigners, he added. "Due to inexperience we are losing our matches in the last 15-20 minutes. We tried to rectify the problem and would be more keen on capitalizing on chances we produce. We hope to put up a good fight against them," he said. Salgaocar are back on track after the first-leg setbacks as they are unbeaten since the ninth round match where they lost to Pune FC. Salgaocar coach Karim Bencherifa said: "Every match is a new match and you got to start a fresh. Though we are improving by every match but we need to stay focused if we want to improve our ranking in the league table. They are a young and energetic side and command respect." Salgaocar stay at 29 points from 17 matches while Pailan arrows have 7 points from 15 matches. PTI