Delhi Dynamos FC were put to the sword by Kerala Blasters FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi on Wednesday in Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18. Iain Hume opened his account for the season in some style by scoring a hat-trick that gave Kerala a 3-1 win on the night. While speaking exclusively to indiansuperleague.com after the game, the Canadian elaborated on his on-field exploits. Here are the excerpts.

Thoughts on tonight’s match.

It’s a win we needed. A lot of people have written us off already. We know how Delhi play and we knew tonight we needed the win to create a little bit of a gap between us. We knew they like to keep the ball so we soaked up the pressure and thankfully, I’ve waited, this is the ninth game and I’ve waited this long to get proper chances and the boys have sorted me out today. I know what I can do and I know what I am capable of when I’m given the opportunity. The guys have been brilliant for me today. I was lucky with the first one, I slid in, the ball hit me and went in and that’s what I needed. The second too, a little bit more work but like I said in the start, the main thing was getting the three points and on top of that getting myself goals this season, which is big for me.

Happy with your performance?

There’s a long way to go. I think I held the ball well and the most important thing for me was leading the line and working off big Mark (Sifneos). It’s a shame that (Dimitar) Berbatov has picked up another injury. I think we would go really well together before he picked that up but big Mark came on, worked really hard and we did well together. We knew what was coming, we knew the way Delhi like to play with the foreign players they’ve got. They like to keep the ball, so we soaked that up. I’m happy with my performance because I got the goals obviously, almost another 90 minutes with three games on the chart now but the main thing for us is the three points. It’s a massive one for us because we know we have created a bit of a gap and it leads us well into the game against Mumbai in four days.

What was the dressing room talk like?

It was much of the same, we need to fight for every bit of that grass. I don’t care if you are Barcelona or Kerala Blasters, we fight for every ounce of that pitch. I think it was a testament to the boys today. Everyone was going in for the tackles, the challenges and we were working as hard as we possibly could. I think that’s what the team’s done. We showed it in glimpses so far this season but again we haven’t got the three points throughout the season that we’ve deserved sometimes and tonight it’s all come together. It wasn’t a perfect performance but we were away from home and we got some goals and the three points which is the main thing.

Thoughts on your fans even in an away game.

Best in the country! We played in Chennai, just before Christmas. I think there were 16,000 to 17,000 people at the stadium and I think at least 6,000 were ours. We came here tonight and I think they said 10,000. I’m willing to bet more than half of that was ours. So when we have that sort of support, they deserve a lot more than they have had this season and we know that. It’s not like we’re not trying, we are trying our best to give them everything they deserve and tonight was a reward for them. We’ve worked hard so far this season, we haven’t laid down and let ourselves get beaten. Honestly, sometimes, things go your way and sometimes they don’t but tonight we worked hard for 90 minutes and thankfully we’ve had that many fans celebrating with us.