NorthEast United FC made it three wins in four matches after a spirited performance against FC Pune City at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium in Balewadi saw them emerge as 1-0 victors on Wednesday evening. It was the Highlanders' first away win of the season and places them at the top of the league table.

The match also saw NorthEast play the majority of the game with 10 men after Nirmal Chettri received a straight red from the referee in the 37th minute. Speaking to media at the post-match press conference in Pune, head coach Nelo Vingada was all praise for his players.

“My first words are for my team, my players. I must say congratulations and thank them. They played today like champions. They aren't champions after today's game but they played like champions. Great spirit and great team work. I feel proud to be part of this team and this fantastic family. I can also not forget the supporters who supported us fantastically from the stands,” said Vingada.

He added: “When we received the red card, we kept compact and organised and we kept things tight and our shape was perfect. We made life difficult for Pune. I believe we played almost an hour with 10 men but we were the best team today and we deserved to win. We created more chances. Pune though has a good team and good players. But these three points are important for us to qualify for the semi-finals. This team is very competitive and any game lost or won can make the difference. But we had a good game. Honestly, we deserved to win. We played a very good game and it was very good organization.”

Vingada, however, wasn't getting too far ahead of himself and advised his players to keep themselves grounded with their next match only three days away against an unbeaten Delhi Dynamos FC side.

“Even though we won, we will be playing in three days at Delhi so we have to control our emotions. We need to be focused. But with our team, we can fight to make a good result. Also, today we had to make two changes but the identity of the team is such that it absorbs the new players very easily. They are following my instructions down to the tee,” the Portuguese said.

When asked if scoring still remained a concern for him since NorthEast managed to convert only one of their 11 shots on target, Vingada said: “Yes, today also we missed one or two good chances. But anyway, we have created more chances and scored one. In Mumbai, we created chances and didn't score. So today was a step up. But our goalkeeper also made two fantastic saves which is important.”

Vingada also admitted that the red card to Chettri in the first half didn't have much of a detrimental effect on his players and instead served to stoke the fire to win even more. “You know if you ask me, I prefer to play with 11 than with 10. With 10 we need to run more and finish the game. I don't think anybody felt the difference with us one down, we played that well. We had to spend more energy but I don't think it made a huge difference to us,” he said.