After a fighting draw against defending champions Bengaluru FC away from home, Mumbai FC would be eager to reclaim the Cooperage ground here as their fortress when they face Dempo SC in their next I-League football match, here tomorrow.
In their last home match, they were routed 0-6 by Shillong Lajong after five successive spotless run at home.
However, they regrouped well and eked out a fighting draw against Bengaluru at the Kanteerava Stadium.
Tomorrow, Mumbai can expect another "physical" match against the 10th-placed Dempo, said the visiting team's assistant coach Aaron Symons at today's media conference.
"I am expecting a physical match. I am taking one week at a time. We just have to convert our chances," said Symons about the Goan outfit's lone victory from 11 games this season, logging 10 points, which has placed them just a rung above the relegation zone currently occupied by Sporting Goa.
Dempo will again be without their injured main striker, Australian Tolgey Ozbey and defender Narayan Das and they will have a tough task breaking open the Mumbai defence spearheaded by Nigerian central defender Chika Wali.
While conceding in an indirect way that providing a number of players for ISL outfit Goa FC had affected the team's plans in I-League, Symons also praised the new initiative as "a great concept."
"Some players had not played at all and some others had played too much football. But we are slowly getting there," was how he put it vis-a-vis ISL affecting his team's preparations for the country's premier league.
Mumbai, in seventh spot with 13 points, too, have to lift their performance, especially after what had transpired at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru.
Jamil, who had claimed he was felled by a water bottle thrown in from the crowd during the game, did not want to dwell too much on it.
"We played as a unit and the players' concentration was there. Everyone played their natural game," said Jamil.
Defender Wali said that it was important for the Bengaluru club's officials to educate their fans.
