Exceptional performances from Kerala Blasters FC’s Paul Rachubka and Chennaiyin FC’s Karanjit Singh ensured the high-octane southern derby ended 0-0 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Friday. The point takes the 2015 champions closer to qualification for the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 playoffs with one game left to play. The visitors’ custodian Singh was in scintillating form throughout the 90 minutes, producing six fantastic saves and a penalty save from Courage Pekuson. After the final whistle, indiansuperleague.com caught up with the ‘Hero of the match’ for his views on the encounter and more. Here are the excerpts.

Chennaiyin are one step closer to the semi-finals, so how does it feel?

I think it was very, very important that we got this one point here. The next match is very important as we need one more point, but we’ll go for the win. So, we’ll see what happens in the next match.

Talk us through the penalty save.

It was the best moment. It felt good that I saved the penalty, so that was good for us. I did my job and I think that is my job. It’s not like anything important but it will give me more confidence for the next matches.

Did you guess the side or observe the player?

We train very hard and many times our goalkeeping coach has told me to wait for the last second. I did wait and luckily, I saved the penalty!

Your thoughts on your performance?

I want to thank Tony Warner (Chennaiyin’s goalkeeping coach) because we trained hard every day and I learned a lot under him. So, I want to thank Tony Warner. He works hard on all the goalkeepers and he has helped us a lot. That is the result that you can see out there today.

Will you say the team has been performing well?

I want to thank everyone. Jeje (Lalpekhlua), all the midfielders and the strikers because this is a team game and we did well. All of us.

What is the mood in the dressing room like?

This one point is very important for us and the next match is important as well. So, we’ll see after that.