"I love this team. I love the Club. I love the coach, the players and my teammates."-Jamie Maclaren
On last Sunday, Mohun Bagan defeated Punjab FC at VYBK in the most unexpected of ways. PFC took the first lead, the Mariners equalized. The Shers took the lead again, and the Mariners equalized yet again. In the added time after 90 regular minutes, Mohun Bagan scored the 3rd goal and won 3-2 in the end.
After the match, Coach Sergio Lobera was asked to define this win in his own words. He said," I am very happy to win. Very important 3 points for us, but this match, as a Coach, I need to think about what happened. Just because we just won, everything is not amazing. We are winning in the wrong way, because if we keep playing like this, it will be difficult to win every game. "
Mohun Bagan conceded two goals, which the Coach views in a different way. " It's not about the goals being conceded. It's about dominating the game. There were a lot of free balls, and the opponent played many passes, and thus, dominated the game. One of our best players [Apuia] in our team was not okay. " Coach reiterated that he couldn't be happy today because of today's performance. "We need to be brave but the way the risk [should be taken] is not in the way we are taking the risk. We need to analyse very well. It's not about the players...many of them came off the bench and had big impact which changed the result. We need to improve especially because we want to win the League. "
Lobera had to praise the Golden Subs, Sahal and Jason, both of whom scored goals in the match that resulted in Mohun Bagan's victory: "I am happy for them. When you are playing with the team every week and scoring goals, its easier for the players. But to manage difficult moments when you are not getting the same opportunities, and you are coming off the bench, and play like that!...I am very happy for them."
Coach discussed midfield weakness in the absence of Apuia in the match, saying " Obviously you know how important Apuia is for us. He is a very important player, both on and off the ball. But if I give an excuse that opponent dominance is happening because we are missing one player, I am not doing my job well. We needed to do better [in the match] without Apuia. The substitutions we made today, changed the game! Other teams do not have these options. Apuia is important for us but there are not excuses for the way we played. "
Sergio then talked about the early substitution of Manvir with Dimi, where he said," Manvir is an amazing professional player. He knows why I made the decision. I had [previous] doubts when I chose the First XI in this game: to play with two Centre-Forwards or only with one. I wanted [the team] to play with three foreign players in attacking positions. "
At last, Coach expressed his concern about Apuia's unavailability in the next Match against NorthEast United FC, but he remains sure that the midfielder will return fit after the big break.
Mohun Bagan storms back to win 3-2 over Punjab FC! A comeback victory after a rollercoaster ride of a match!
— MBFT (@MBFT89) April 12, 2026
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The first goalscorer and Man of the Match, Jamie Maclaren, came in front of the media to answer some questions.
The Aussie praised the efforts of the Shers as he said," I'm satisfied coming away with 3 points. Punjab FC is a very good team, they had almost beaten us [in the match] and went hand-in-hand...well-managed team, great coach, great players. They improved from last year. But at home, we fought well till the end. You're gonna get these games. There were matches where we played better and didn't get the results. Now, we are at closing distance of Mumbai City FC and this was our aim to get back to winning ways. "
About scoring the goal, Jamie Maclaren shared his feelings about it. " My mother's mum passed away the previous day. I was going through a lot of emotions...I was very close to not playing today but I love this team, I love the club, I love the coach, I love the players and my teammates. They get me over the line [that day]and see what it means to me. They are my family. So, they got around me [in the match] and she [his mother's mum] was watching [that day] and she got to watch my goal."
Jamie then spoke about his goal drought over the last three matches and what changed in this match. " There will be periods when I don't score. There was added pressure for me to score after I didn't in the last three games, but that comes with representing Mohun Bagan. Last week, I was so unlucky and confused about missing that chance against Jamshedpur FC and I wanted to right the wrong. I came out with a good mentality to maintain a good strike rate to score goals. It was a nice goal today; I want to build on that and hopefully, continue keep scoring [in upcoming games]. "
Maclaren was happy for his Aussie counterpart, Jason Cummings, who scored his first goal of ISL 2025/26. He said," He is a funny character. He is somebody that adds a huge amount of quality to our squad, not only on our pitch, but off it. He needed that goal tonight. The freekick was great delivery. I feel we deserved a bit of luck; we haven't had much in the last few weeks, in terms of decisions and chances. I can see they [PFC] were complaining about the keeper maybe being fouled. These things go for me when they don't go for you. I feel we deserved that bit of luck at that moment. Congratulations to Jason and also to Sahal, who scored a fantastic goal. He'll take more confidence from that as well. "
Maclaren felt this match was the toughest in terms of physicality, and gave them a lot of credit for being brave and the way they played.
Regarding the win, Jamie said," Massive confidence boost for us. I know we haven't got results in the last three games. When games go on, pressure builds. There are people talking about 'Mohun Bagan isn't what it used to be'. That's outside noise and we are only able to control what's inside the room. We knew this was going to be a huge game. You can see the character that we showed, where we went 2-1 down and still scored two and managed to get three points in the end. That's a sign of what we did in the previous years to win Championships, to come from behind and score in the 90th Minute. Always believe. That's what separates the top teams from the bottom teams. Today we showed that that we are a top team. "
With those final comments, Mohun Bagan left the post-match conference instilling hope in the hearts of Mariners, and with the aim to keep the winning run on, to fulfill quest of lifting the ISL Shield this year.
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