NorthEast United FC and Jamshedpur FC were involved in a 0-0 draw at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Saturday. The Highlanders had more chances and even struck the post but Jamshedpur managed to hold on for a draw despite being down to 10 men after former NorthEast man Andre Bikey was sent off by the referee in the 78^th minute.

Needless to say, NorthEast head coach Joao de Deus was disappointed at the outcome. “Of course, I’m not happy. Today’s match should have finished with record goals scored in Hero ISL. NEUFC were much better and played with more quality. The quality we put in deserved better results, but we are happy with how we played otherwise,” he told reporters at the post-match press conference.

The Portuguese head coach was pleased with the performance of Abdul Hakku and was full of praise for him after the match. “When I was in Kerala I mentioned that this kid [Abdul Hakku] is going to be in the Indian national football team because I have eyes, I see how he is performing on field, in training and during pre-season as well. Also, the people who saw NEUFC play today know that the kid has potential. We are going to give him space to grow and in one or two years he is going to [be one of] the names of Indian Football,” he said.

Deus also explained that how his side plays depends to an extent on the opposition. “We analyse the team before deciding how to play. Today we accomplished how to play and did damage to the opponents. I think the best chance of the game was deep movement and not from the wings. The team must have the capacity to decide how and when to do damage to the opponents. Overall, I am happy with the boys,” he said.

Jamshedpur head coach Steve Coppell, on the other hand, was clearly happier of the two coaches going by his words after the final whistle. “I have to be happy with the result; it’s good to get a point here. Totally different game from last year, I think the pressure of being a new club in the ISL [affected us]. We didn’t play much football and when we got the ball we gave it away really quickly,” Coppell said.

He continued: “But once we got stabilized we looked dangerous on the break, before half time we had a good opportunity, second half we were getting better, but we lost it a little bit, so I made the substitutions. I thought Andre [Bikey] would come and settle things down but it ends us up with ten men. But we still got the point so I’m happy about that and the total performance. We got a lot of work to do to improve.”

Expanding on Bikey’s sending off, the Englishman added: “It came at a critical time for us when I brought Andre on to settle things down for us. I think it was lazy defending because he saw the player and let him get in front putting himself in an awkward position. It was definitely a foul but I don’t think there was any malicious intent, so it was pretty harsh for a red card.”