FC Pune City coach David Platt was relieved to have salvaged a point against FC Goa in their Hero Indian Super League Season 2 match at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium in Pune on Sunday evening. Pune were trailing 2-1 when marquee player Adrian Mutu got the equaliser for them in added time. Platt was satisfied with the way his team played.

“I was pleased with the way we played. I like to control the game and I think we did. Our risk in the first half was set-pieces and corners but other than the one that Eugeneson [Lyngdoh] cleared off the line, we did ok. I was disappointed in the two goals cause we conceded with little margin for errors. Sometimes you get away with those things but today we did not.

“The second half, we were exceptional…We were patient. We ensured that the game didn’t go against us and we made sure we were not counter-attacked by a very good counter-attacking team,” Platt told reporters after the match.

Platt also exalted Romanian striker Mutu who scored his first goal of the season. “It wasn’t a gamble to play him. We can all see his quality. He missed a few days in the middle that interrupted his training plan. So having three games in six days - Chennai, Kerala and Goa - the players on the bench also were doing very little training. After our game in Goa, he got back to his training and set himself up for the whole 90 minutes. I think he did that more with his head than with his legs. I think he’s doing enough to start a match and withstand it,” Platt said.

With one point from the match, Pune (14 points from nine matches) took the second spot ahead of Delhi Dynamos FC (14 points from eight matches) on goal difference and behind Goa (15 points from nine matches). This was Pune’s sixth game at home and there was just one more left (against Chennaiyin FC on December 5). When asked how crucial that factor was, Platt said: “Every team has their own set of problems and I am not going to look at how many games are home or away. I think we are in a very positive place and in better position than a lot of other teams but we need a few points to qualify. But we are on the road for that semi-final place.”