FC Pune City rose to second on the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 table with 15 points from eight matches after handing NorthEast United FC a 5-0 rout at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium in Pune on Saturday. Stallions captain Marcelinho picked up his first hat-trick of the season, while Ashique Kuruniyan and Adil Khan added to the tally. After a comfortable 90 minutes for the hosts, indiansuperleague.com caught up with Kuruniyan who slotted home his maiden Hero ISL goal. Here are the excerpts from the interview.

Your thoughts on your goal?

I’m glad that I got to play and scored the first goal. I’m really happy! Everyone in the team supported me, even our coach.

Your take on Marcelinho’s inch-perfect free-kick?

I was 100% sure he would score. The keeper tried to save it, but it was a good free-kick so it went in. I knew for sure it was going to be a goal!

How will FC Pune City progress in the new year?

We need to play better. We can play better. We need to be in the top four, so we will do better.

What was the team talk during the half-time break?

Everyone made sure we knew that we didn’t win as yet, and that another 45 minutes were left. Also, that we needed to concentrate in order to score more goals and that’s what we did.