Kingfisher East Bengal coach Trevor Morgan stays confident that his team would be able to sustain the momentum as last season. In a chat with www.the-aiff.com, Morgan spoke at length about his plans and his players.

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Has the result of the first match come as a setback?

Not really. It’s the start of the new season and such things can happen. The fact that we came back from one goal down and played quality football in the second half has made all confident. We are looking ahead to the next match.

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Does the tag of ‘Defending Champions’ bring an added pressure with it?

Being the Defending Champion makes you more responsible as you have to up the bar in comparison to the last season. I don’t target anything. We take one game at a time and specially in a tournament like Federation cup you have to win five matches on the trot which is a big task. One bad match and you are out.

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Are you happy with the fitness levels of your players?

The fitness levels are impressive. Obviously they are not 100 per cent match fit yet because that comes only with the competitive matches but they are as good as they can be at this point of time.

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Promising striker Robin Singh picked up an injury during practice. Will it have an impact on your strategy?

It’s an unfortunate incident and a setback but this sort of incident can happen to anyone anyday. Though the injury isn’t an serious one. He will be sitting out for the initial two matches if not more.

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East Bengal were on a roll last season. How do you plan to sustain the momentum?

We need to be on our toes against any team. We have a bunch of experience and talented young players in our side who have the ability to open up the opposition. We are difficult side to break down when we are going down at the ball. So I would say we are here for a task and we will come out with flying colours.

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(AIFF Press Release)