Watch the space with this group, we can achieve good things: Men's hockey coach Graham Reid

India men's hockey coach Graham Reid on Tuesday said that everyone around the world needs to take notice of his team as they will surely achieve some good things going ahead.

The men's team ended 41-year long wait for a medal at the Olympics as Manpreet Singh and boys returned with a bronze medal.

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"Look, it is a wonderful thing, you do not realise, or I had hoped and dreamt, and to come off the plane yesterday and to see the reaction of the entire country, it is very humbling and it has been a honour and privilege. I have told this to few people, watch the space with this group, we can achieve some really good things," Reid told ANI.

Talking about the game against Australia, Reid said: "There are always a number of things, there are other things that go behind the scenes. It was not really a 1-7 game, to be able to tell the team, that it was not that bad and I think as a coach you have to maintain stability about that and not over react. We played in that game better as compared to match against Spain where we won 3-0. When you look at that, it was quite an easy sell. When we got out of the bus and we entered the village, we said that we will analyse the game but it was past us."

The coach also said that winning gold at the Paris Olympics is a realistic target, but he also admitted that Manpreet and Co need to keep on improving their game.

"For a team to come back from 1-3, especially when we lost the semi-final, our side dug deep. When you are down, the best step is to come out of it slowly. I thought we would get in front, but when we went 3-5 down, it got a bit too much," said Reid.

"Winning gold medal at the next Olympics is realistic. It is always there, any of the top eight teams can beat each other on the day. What I wanted to say is that we are trying to take this team to the next level, we have to do much better as other teams are also improving their skills," he added.

The Indian men's hockey team, which ended a 41-year medal drought by clinching a bronze medal in Tokyo, rose to 3rd in the International Hockey Federation (FIH) World Rankings, behind Belgium and Australia, respectively.

Before this feat, the Manpreet Singh-led side's career-high ranking was No.4, which they achieved in March 2020 on the back of their scintillating performances in the first three rounds of the second edition of FIH Hockey Pro League 2020.

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