"We'd have taken a point before the game" - Bengaluru FC boss Simon Grayson on 1-1 draw with Chennaiyin FC | ISL 2022-23

Bengaluru FC head coach Simon Grayson indicated that a draw wasn't the worst result, but feels his team missed a chance to beat Chennaiyin FC. The two teams met at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai for their second ISL 2022-23 encounter on Friday (October 14).

The Blues went ahead after just four minutes as Sivasakthi Narayanan set up Roy Krishna for a near-post header that nestled in the far corner. However, they failed to make their advantage count as the hosts quickly recovered and dominated proceedings in the first half.

Chennaiyin ultimately got a deserved equalizer when Prasanth Karuthadathkuni scored from Petar Sliskovic's pass in behind the Bengaluru defense. Grayson's men were second best for much of the game, but received a golden opportunity when Debjit Majumder was sent off for a foul on Krishna.

However, they couldn't take advantage of Chennaiyin having a defender, Vafa Hakhamaneshi, in goal for the final 10 minutes and settled for a draw.

Grayson believes a draw away from home wasn't a bad result, but felt Bengaluru made some errors towards the end that kept them from winning the game. He said in his post-match press conference:

"We'd have taken a point before the game. I'm disappointed that we've not tried to win the game in the later stages and in the second half, we gave the ball away too cheaply."

Grayson also stated that his team needs to improve its game management, while acknowledging that Chennaiyin fed off their fans' energy and said:

"I think we've got to manage the game well, which we did for the first 15-20 minutes. I don't think Chennaiyin really created anything. We kept the ball. The crowd then lifted them when they got a few opportunities. It's a local derby so they are not going to give up on it, that's for sure."

He added about Bengaluru's inability to capitalize on the Marina Machans having Hakhamaneshi in goal:

"When you get to the last stages of the game and the opposition have a centre-back in the goal, we didn't ask enough questions to try and win the game."

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"Felt that we needed to get an extra body into midfield" - Bengaluru FC coach Grayson on half-time substitution

One of Simon Grayson's biggest calls during the match against Chennaiyin was replacing Sivasakthi Narayanan with Jayesh Rane at half-time. Narayanan had enjoyed a decent game until then and even assisted Roy Krishna's goal.

Asked about the change after the game, Grayson stated that Rane was introduced to cut down the spaces Chennaiyin seemed to have in abundance. He said:

"We started the game ever so well. But we gave the ball away a little too much and allowed them possession and their No. 10 was drifting into little pockets.

"I felt that we needed to get another body in midfield. Sunil [Chhetri] was playing just slightly behind Roy because we wanted to make sure that we were a little bit more compact in the middle of the pitch."

The Blues' head coach believes the ploy did help his team's shape, but feels his players needed to do better with the ball at their feet:

"I thought we did that. But we didn't keep the ball well enough and when we did, we didn't move it quickly enough, [taking] three or four touches instead of two touches."

Bengaluru will undoubtedly hope for a better display when they take on reigning champions Hyderabad FC in their next match on October 22.