Bhubaneshwar, Feb 7 (IANS): Odisha FC head coach Josep Gombau felt his side deserved a reward for their effort as they played out a 1-1 draw against FC Goa in the Indian Super League (ISL) fixture at the Kalinga Stadium on Monday.

Noah Sadaoui's early strike was cancelled out by Diego Mauricio as both sides were level at the break. Odisha FC went down to ten men in the second half as Sahil Panwar received his marching orders. However, despite the numerical disadvantage, the home team defended resolutely for the remainder of the game to see out a draw.

The result means that Odisha FC continue to remain a point behind sixth-placed Bengaluru FC while FC Goa move to fourth. Gombau felt that his side were the better team in the first half and stated it was difficult to get back in the game after the red card to Panwar.

"Disappointed with the result because we did very well, especially in the first half. It's a game where we should have got more reward (for our efforts). I'm not saying that we deserved to win because, in the end, we played 30 minutes with 10 men and FC Goa had a lot of chances. But it's true that eleven against eleven, in the first half, the game belonged to us.

"We cannot make a mistake as we did in the first half because if the opposition team beats you and scores a goal, but we gave the ball to them in an easy situation in the first minute and after that, you have to chase the game," Gombau said in the post-match press conference.

He added that "We deserved to score the goal that we scored. In the second half, we had some chances too. With 10 men, it was more difficult. There are three more games, two at home and one away. If we play with this intensity, we will get more points. We will see where we are at the end of the season,"