Languishing at the bottom half of the table, both Chennai City FC and NEROCA will look for an outright win when they clash against each other in the I-League here on Tuesday.
Chennai City currently occupy the ninth spot on the league table while NEROCA are a notch below at 10th.
With both contingents struggling in the bottom half of the table, the urgency to grab a win and propel themselves into the top six is of paramount importance.
While Chennai City FC suffered a crushing 4-0 loss to Sudeva Delhi FC, NEROCA held Mohammedan SC to a goalless draw in their previous games.
"We lacked concentration and focus in our last match against Sudeva (Delhi FC). We did not defend well and were punished for our mistakes. Individual errors cost us goals and that is something which we have to correct," Chennai City head coach Satyasagara said.
"However, we will stick with our philosophy and we have to get a positive result in our remaining matches. Our target is still to finish in the top six and we look forward to the clash against NEROCA tomorrow."
"The season has been challenging for us, but I still believe in my team and believe in our philosophy. A win tomorrow will make a lot of difference for us as it will help us go into the top half of the table, and lift the morale of the team, the Singaporean coach added.
Although NEROCA were without the services of star defender Varney Kallon in their last match, a good defensive performance by the rest of the squad saw them share points with Mohammedan. The positives are there to be seen in Gift Raikhan's contingent with a solid backline and pacey forwards, but points are still amiss.
"We cannot afford to fall prey to inconsistency anymore. For the remaining of our matches, we have to play as if it is a do-or-die situation. We need to collect maximum points tomorrow as well," Raikhan said.
"We are missing consistency but the squad has improved a lot. So as long as there is an improvement, consistency will come. As coaches, we need to find the best solutions to give better results. We will do better with every match," he added.
Defender Gobin Thokchom said, "We need to win tomorrow. It is of crucial importance that we get maximum points tomorrow and propel ourselves into the top half. We are ready for the challenge at hand and will play out to get the result we want.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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