India might have failed to qualify for the quarterfinals of the ongoing Hero Junior Men's Hockey World Cup, but chief coach Gregg Clark feels his wards have a "bright future" despite them producing an inconsistent show in front of home crowd in the mega-event here.
India had lost just against The Netherlands in the league stage but still they were crashed out of the quarterfinal race after finishing third in their pool.
"You guys can draw your own conclusions about the quality of our performance. We lost just one game by one goal and we are playing for 9 and 10th. If that represents failure I don't know. Not everybody can make it to the top position," he said.
"The format was pretty tough. Only two teams from each pool went through. There is lot of good teams that haven't done well in this tournament.
"Sometimes result is not always an indicator of how good a team is. One of the semifinalists, Malaysia, we played them six times this year and are undefeated. I still believe that the next couple of years are bright for the Indian team," Clark told reporters at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium here today.
The coach listed out the areas India needed to work upon in the future.
"We could have been more accurate in some of the pool games. We didn't get small moments right which made a big difference. Our temperament before a big match or in the last 10 minutes of a big match is certainly an area we need to look at," he explained.
"The team has played really well in patches. We couldn't produce the best when it really counted. Overall, we have produced some pretty good hockey.
"As I said, we produced some good hockey and statistics say that. Apart from the match against the Dutch, we made more circle entries and got more penalty corners," the South African said.
