Siam Hanghal had a great outing against his former club NorthEast United FC as defending champions Chennaiyin FC beat the Highlanders 1-0 in their 2016 Hero Indian Super League encounter at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Thursday. Hanghal provided the pass for Davide Succi’s goal in the 49th minute of the game. The 23-year-old midfielder, who picked up two awards after the match – DHL Winning Pass of the Match and ISL Emerging Player of the Match – spoke to indiansuperleague.com and shared his thoughts on the defending champions’ second successive win in the league. Here are the excerpts from the interview.

Big three points away for you, also a brilliant assist by you. What is your reaction?

This was one of the most important away matches for us. We are gaining momentum now. These are very vital points, so we are happy to win this match and get three points.

How important was scoring first here?

It was very important because I was playing here the last season and I am very happy to provide the assist.

This is a tough place to come and play. What are your views on the home fans here?

NorthEast have always had good fans so it will always be hard for the away team. The crowd is always behind the team whether they win or lose so it is very hard to play here for away teams. Under the circumstances, I am very happy that we won and we are going to try and continue winning.

Another tough away game against FC Pune City coming up. What are your thoughts?

We played an away match here, if we play like we did today it will be easy for us and we will try to do our best in Pune as well.

Your team is finally gaining momentum…

We have been working hard in the training ground and we have been able to implement those things in these matches. So let’s see what happens in the coming matches.

Was there any specific instruction given to you by the coach at half-time?

He said the game is in the balance so be focussed, don’t make mistakes and everything will be alright.