Aaron Hughes returned from national duty for Northern Ireland and inspired Kerala Blasters FC to a 2-1 win against FC Pune City at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Friday evening. With the win, Kerala moved up to third in the standings with 18 points from 12 games and appeared to be on course to reach the semis. Hughes marshalled Kerala’s defence with great alacrity all through the match besides doubling Kerala’s lead in the 57th minute through a calculated header. Kerala’s marquee man spoke to indiansuperleague.com shortly after the win and shared his thoughts. Here are the excerpts from the interview.What are your thoughts on the match?It was a tough game and they got a late goal and that makes things nervy at the end but obviously it is a great result and we worked very hard and we were well worth the three points and delighted with the win.How important was getting the early goal for you?Well, an early goal is always important if you can get it, as it settles you down a little and the opponent needs to attack more and hopefully leave you space where we can exploit. We can pick parts in the game where we could have done better and look at things where we did well and then we look forward to Tuesday [vs ATK].Another two games left, so do you think another three points will be sufficient for you to reach the semis?For today we will just enjoy the feeling of winning again as it is a great occasion and then just prepare for the next game and try to get something from that game that will see us through to the semi-finals.You returned from national duty for Northern Ireland and now you are representing Kerala, how exciting is that?It is exciting to come out here and to be called to play for the national team is an honour for me, and to have the best of both worlds is fantastic and especially at this stage of my career.
