NorthEast United FC succumbed to their third loss of Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 after playing with 10 men for most of their encounter against Kerala Blasters FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Friday. CK Vineeth scored the only goal of the game for Kerala, while TP Rehenesh was sent off after he was shown a straight red for bringing down Mark Sifneos when the Dutchman had a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

The Highlanders showed great spirit though, and put up a good fight even with a man down. Speaking to the media at the post-match press conference was their head coach Joao de Deus, who concluded that his side’s lack of goals in a problem. “NorthEast had the same problem as in the other games, which is not scoring,” he explained. “I don’t know how many shots on target we had today; I think it was nine. In the previous game it was 17. I just want to focus on that. We are frustrated because we had so many chances. We lost a game which we shouldn’t have lost.”

The Portuguese head coach further added that even with 10 men, the Highlanders could have won the match had they taken their chances. “If we had scored from the chances we had created, we would have won the game even with 10 men,” he stated. “We were good in this match, and I think my boys deserved the praise. We were great, we did well. With 10 men, we played hard, we had good attempts but we did not score. It is true that the opponents also had good chances, but we were playing with 10.”

Looking ahead Deus insisted that he’s confident in his side’s ability to find the back of the net more frequently in the future. “I tell my players that when you win, not everything is right and when you lose not everything is wrong,” he said. “We don’t need to be too smart to understand that. One day our team is going to score three or four goals. We know that it can happen anytime.”