Chennaiyin FC head coach Bozidar Bandovic was pleased with the way his team played in the absence of some key players as they held Hyderabad FC to a 1-1 draw in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) at the PJN Stadium in Margao, Goa on Thursday.

Chennaiyin went ahead through Mohd Sajid Dhot in the 13th minute but could not hold on to their lead till half-time as Javier Siverio (45’+ 4’) continued his scoring spree with a goal on the cusp of half-time. There were no goals in the second half as Debjit Majumder made a string of saves in the Chennaiyin FC goal.

With this result, Hyderabad FC moved third in the table with 17 points from 11 games while Chennaiyin FC remained sixth having 15 points from 11 matches.

Head coach Bandovic addressed the media after the match.

Here are excerpts from his post-match press conference:

Do you think your team did well today?

Yes. we did well. Because in some games we did very well in attack. Today we started the game very well, maybe the last 15 minutes, the last period of the first half it wasn't good in attacking, but most of the game, it was good. I think we did well today even with this scoreline.

Do you think 1-1 is a fair result for both teams?

It was one tactical strong game and with one very good organized team, they had the same coach from last year. They had some chances and we had too, so it was a good game. Good one point but always we wanted to win the game. We traced the score till the last minute, especially the last 20 minutes of the game, I think we were the ones who could score the goal that time.

Just one win in the last five matches. Does that concern you a bit?

It concerns me when you don't play a good game and all these. But if we play even like this today and of course with the problems that we have without Ariel Borysiuk and Vladimir Koman. Of course, we wanted to win today and the boys gave everything today. For most of the game, they did well.