FC Goa edged Bengaluru FC 4-3 in a thrilling contest at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda on Thursday. The Blues were reduced to 10 men in the opening period after their goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu was sent off. Bengaluru fought back to level things at 3-3 in the second half but couldn’t prevent their first loss of the campaign against a rampant Goa side. Shortly after the pulsating end-to-end encounter, Bengaluru defender John Johnson spoke to indiansuperleague.com. Here are the excerpts from the interview.

What are your thoughts on tonight’s game?

It was a tough game, I thought Goa did very well. We made too many individual mistakes which cost us the game. We will come back from this. We will regroup, and go again for the next game.

What was the half-time talk about?

We just wanted to stay solid. We knew we had quality up front, so, if we just kept it tight, maybe we would nick a goal and who knows what would happen. We got the goals back, but sloppy mistakes from us in the end cost us the game I think. I think Goa did really well, and fair play to them. They are a good team.

Did you expect the game to be this tough in the second half?

Yes, when you go down to 10 men, it is always difficult. You are a man less, especially against a team like Goa who were keeping the ball, and keeping it moving. It was going to be difficult here in the hot weather. But I think we put on a good performance in the second half. Maybe on another day we could have got 3-3, but it wasn’t to be.

What are your thoughts on the first away game?

Yeah, it was good. The atmosphere was great – a nice day to come and play. The result wasn’t what we wanted, but like I said, we will regroup again and hopefully will keep on with our good run.