Jamshedpur FC snapped their winless streak with a thumping 5-0 victory against Hyderabad FC at the Gachibowli Stadium in the Indian Super League (ISL) 2023-24 on Thursday night.
Nigerian striker Daniel Chima Chukwu powered an impactful turnaround for the Red Miners, scoring his first-ever ISL hat-trick to inflict another loss on the Thangboi Singto-coached unit.
Jamshedpur head coach Scott Cooper had sounded a stern warning to his team after their 1-0 defeat in the previous game against Bengaluru FC. He questioned their desire, and had mentioned that some of the players should be concerned of their place in the club with the January transfer window coming up. The reaction was a trigger to extract a response from the players, who despite having some very creative players in their ranks, were falling short of positive results far too often.
Chukwu put his hand up and spearheaded this comeback for the visitors, nodding in a cross by Imran Khan from the left flank in the second minute of the game to get Jamshedpur an early lead. That set the tone for the game, livening up the Jamshedpur frontline with every forward covering each blade of the grass to run circles around the Hyderabad FC backline.
Mohammed Sanan steered in the middle of the box and shifted the ball to the right flank, before it was directed towards Jeremy Monzorro who firmly headed the ball into the box for Chukwu. The Nigerian brought out a fantastic, rather unforeseen trick off his books, pulling off an acrobatic overhead kick that hammered the ball on the top right corner. The nature of the goal, more than the strike itself, got Jamshedpur going to put in a relentless effort leaving no room of hope for Hyderabad to claw back.
However, their approach did slightly cool up after the half-time break, and Cooper perhaps felt the need to reignite the spirits with some fresh legs in the attacking unit. Seiminlen Doungel replaced Sanan and the attacker made an immediate impact, aiming for the back of the net from outside of the box and successfully rounding off the endeavour by adding the third goal in their tally in the 70th minute.
It was Chukwu’s night of reckoning though, as the forward capped off the match by bringing up his hat-trick in the 79th minute. This one was a fairly straightforward effort, as Chukwu pounced upon an arguably listless Hyderabad backline and converted an opportunity set up for him by Nikhil Barla. That was preceded by Jonathan Moya scoring an own goal from a corner that Jamshedpur had earned moments after Doungel’s goal, as the Red Miners brought curtains down on a five-star performance to bag their second victory of the season.