Mumbai City FC ended their 2015 Hero Indian Super League campaign with a 3-2 win over defending champions Atlético de Kolkata at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Friday and marquee player-cum-coach Anelka was happy that his team at last lived up to its potential.“Today it was tight. We played well and we were tight. We came here to win. We came without pressure and I felt we deserved to win. Credit to the players,” Anelka told reporters after the match.“I’m pleased with the players. Good reaction. This is what I want from my players, a desire to win and fighting spirit was shown by the players. It was a special win for the players and I’m very proud because it’s our first win away from home ever. The players totally deserved it. Today we wanted to fight and win and yes we did it.”Mumbai were already out of semis contention going into the match. When asked to assess Mumbai’s disappointing campaign this season, the former France international said: “Yes, it was little bit disappointing. It’s a shame I think. If we had played like this before, we could have done a lot. In football you win sometimes, you lose sometimes. In football it happens. The fans, players, owners all wanted to qualify for the semis. Maybe [it will happen] next season for Mumbai, and it is good to see Mumbai win away from home.“It’s good to win away from home and finish with a win. I hope it’s going to be the starting point for next season and about me I don’t know yet. We’ll see what happens. I just want to enjoy that we won. We have time to think about everything else later. Just want to enjoy today.”Talking about his coaching experience in the league, Anelka said: “It was hard for me to focus on my game [because of the additional responsibility]. It was hard and I like it that way. It is a good thing. You look at the game in different ways. You just play as a player but as manager it is a lot of things and harder. I enjoyed my time at Mumbai. I would love to do it again maybe one or two more times. Let’s see what happens.”Mumbai reached Kolkata only on Friday morning as they were stranded in flood-hit Chennai following their game there on Tuesday. When asked if the troubles they faced in Chennai inspired them on Friday, Anelka said: “It wasn’t too difficult; we were staying at the hotel, not doing anything. We had lost the game [vs Chennai] so today we showed we are mentally strong. We came to Kolkata this morning. When you show the desire to win and fighting spirit, you have good chance to win. And what happened in Chennai, nobody was too much into it. We were focused on the game. ATK are on top of the table. We played for three points or one and not zero and we got the three points.”Sony Norde scored a brace in Mumbai’s win on Friday evening and Anelka was all praise for the Haitian striker. “He is a very good player. He can do anything. He is fast and clever and I like him as a player. He just needs to work on the defensive aspect of his game. He left for the national side [for two games] and played well whenever he was here,” Anelka said.
