NorthEast United FC suffered their third defeat on the trot in the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2019-20 as they went down 1-0 against ATK FC at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata on Monday. The Highlanders put up a resolute display for over 90 minutes but were eventually undone by a late Balwant Singh header.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, NorthEast head coach Robert Jarni assessed the game and said, “Firstly, my players played a fantastic game. We have a very young team. Two players are 18 years old. We had more chances than ATK. We didn’t have much luck because we couldn’t score or convert the chances. We have had a series of negative results. The only way out is to keep on working.”

In the reverse fixture, ATK beat the Highlanders by three goals. However, NorthEast were defensively sound till the last minute tonight to ensure they stayed in the game right till the very end. On this, the Croat said, “Last match (against ATK) they had a counter attacking game. But in this match, we planned to win, not even draw. We didn’t want to leave much space in the defence to allow them the long balls and we knew that we would have our chances. But too bad for us that we couldn’t score.”

Pressed for his opinion on new signings Andrew Keogh, who was playing his second match tonight, and debutant Simon Lundevall, the 51-year-old said, “We have a fantastic striker in Andy (Andrew) Keogh. He took some time to adapt. We have a new player Simon Lundevall, who can also play in the left wing, and he came three days ago. I’m very pleased with my players. Their performance was excellent.”

Read the Match Report here.