FC Pune City visit table-toppers Bengaluru FC in their Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 encounter at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday. The Stallions are edging closer to sealing their maiden playoff berth, and a win against the Blues would also close the gap at the top to just two points. Their custodian Vishal Kaith has put on a few stellar shows in goal so far, making some superb saves and keeping six clean sheets – the second most this season. The 21-year-old goalkeeper spoke to indiansuperleague.com prior to the encounter and shared his thoughts. Here are the excerpts.

Talk us through your footballing career so far.

I started playing in my home town and then went on to play at the national level for the Under-16s. After that I played for the Under-19s before starting my professional career with my first club, Shillong Lajong. I played there for three years before moving to Pune City (in the Hero I-League). And from there I was selected for FC Pune City in the Hero ISL and so far it has gone well for me.

How would you rate your experience this season?

Till now it has been very good. The team is playing well and is in second position. We are on the back of two wins and I am also in contention for the Golden Glove. So all these things are giving me a lot of confidence.

How is the morale of the team considering you are so close to making the playoffs?

Tomorrow’s game is very important. We will qualify for the playoffs if we win. So we are focused on winning tomorrow’s game and getting three points. It’s very tight in the table, so one cannot predict anything.

What’s it like to play alongside class players and working with experienced coaches?

If your team has good players and good coaches, you get to learn a lot. So, when you play alongside these players, they point out the mistakes. The coaches provide good training for which it has become easy for me to play and improve. I am taking it step by step and hope to keep on improving.

Which Bengaluru FC player do you see as the biggest threat tomorrow?

Bengaluru are a very good team. They have already qualified for the playoffs. So, all their players pose a threat to be honest. Especially (Sunil) Chhetri, Miku, Udanta (Singh) are the ones to look out for. But, we have maintained two clean sheets in our previous couple of matches and if we continue with the form, we should have no problem.