NorthEast United FC head coach Khalid Jamil heaped praises on his team after a 2-0 win against SC East Bengal in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) on Wednesday at the PJN Stadium in Margao, Goa.

The Highlanders have now extended SCEB's winless run to seven games, which puts them at the bottom of the points table. VP Suhair (61’) scored the opening goal and gave NEUFC a crucial lead. Patrick Flottmann (68') extended the advantage by scoring his first goal in the Hero ISL. With this win, the Highlanders secured three crucial points and now sitting seventh on the points table.

In the backdrop of FC Goa's victory over SC East Bengal, coach Khalid Jamil spoke to the media in the official post-match press conference.

Here are the excerpts from the press conference:

What was your message to your players after halftime?

I just told them to go there and play, try to hit the target then maybe we will get a goal. And play as a team and it worked for us.

What are your thoughts on the game? 

Actually, looking to the starting of the game we missed Hernan (Santana) today because he got injured during warm-up, as he was not available for selection due to that small injury. So we added Justin and defensively we thought that not to open, just to stay back, I told Lakhra and Gurjinder not to go up to help Flottmann and Jestin because he was playing his second game and he did a wonderful job. And I told Imran to help Khassa in the defense and the second thing I told Mathias is to play as a free player and join Mapuia. And I think Mapuia, did a good job for us.

What do you think is the reason for so many injuries? 

Everybody’s working hard, maybe there’s less time for recovery due to the close matches. At the same time, there’s no complaint, we are well prepared so that’s the good thing.