James Keene in action against FC Goa.English forward James Keene, 28, came in as a substitute after defensive midfielder Kondwani Mtonga was injured, but could not change the game despite his best efforts as NorthEast United FC crashed to a 3-0 defeat away to a rampant FC Goa in Margao on Monday night.The former Portsmouth Youth Academy product who has played in the English Premier League under the famous manager Harry Redknapp, has featured in nine out of 12 games for the Highlanders and was obviously disappointed with today’s loss. He however heaped praise upon the Goa fans as well as his head coach Ricki Herbert and stressed on the unity in the NorthEast camp in an exclusive interview with indiansuperleague.com. What do you think went wrong today?We had to make a few changes early on and then we conceded a goal. From there on, it was always going to be an uphill battle.Did the injury to Kondwani Mtonga hurt the prospects of your side? He’s been fantastic for us, he’s played every game, he’s been Man of the Match a lot of times and it’s unfortunate that he got injured early on. I don’t know how serious it is, we had to make a change and conceded a goal at the same time. When things happen so fast, it’s difficult, because you’re chasing the game.Was the atmosphere at the stadium intimidating?It’s a pleasure to play for them because the fans have been brilliant. They love football and both the teams; we’re lucky at home and we’re lucky to have the fans here as well.Do you think that the North East is a brilliant place to play football? Absolutely, we’ve got a lot of good young players from the North East, we’ve got absolutely fantastic fans, and they fill up the stadium every week.2-0 down at half time, what was the talk in the dressing room?‘We've got to keep our heads up and be positive, it’s up to us’. I think we came out in the second half and gave it a try. Unfortunately, we weren’t given a penalty decision which was pretty clear.Did you anticipate a tough match because Goa’s been in a good run of form?Of course, it applies to all the teams in the league, you never know what you’re going to get from them. Goa have been on a good run and we came here today and conceded early. They also got their fans behind them; I think the penalty decision that we missed was a massive one for us, it was at a very crucial time.A word on your coach Ricki Herbert. He’s brilliant for the young boys, we’ve got a pretty positive group, we’ve got a team, we’re united and we put in a lot of great performances of late. The young boys have come off pretty well for us, we’ve played some pretty attractive football which is good for the league. Today, we played some good football in difficult circumstances.
