NorthEast United FC’s freefall down the 2016 Hero Indian Super League table continued following a 1-0 loss against Mumbai City FC at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium on Saturday. Jackichand Singh scored the game’s only goal at the stroke of half-time to propel Mumbai to the summit of the table. The loss also meant that the Highlanders missed out on their chance of getting back into the top 4 on Saturday evening, having picked up 10 points from their eight matches so far.NorthEast head coach Nelo Vingada was critical in his assessment of his side’s performance and questioned the numerous unnecessary yellow cards that his players picked up. “Today was bad, not only in terms of the result. Even in the last two games, the result was bad but I came here and told you what I felt. We lost the game to both Atlético de Kolkata and Chennaiyin FC, even though we created good chances. We showed that even though we lost we were still in the race. Today it is a completely different situation, even though we created chances…Today there were many moments during the game that I felt this was not my team. These are the players who played very well in the first 4-5 games, and in the last three games have almost destroyed all that we worked for in the beginning. We can lose, draw or win, these are the only three results in football. But we cannot lose the way we did today. It felt like we lost more than three points today,” Vingada told the media after the game.He continued: “During the game we had some [heated] discussions with the coach [of the opposite team] and some pushing and pulling [also happened]. This is not the football I want. Because of this we received yellow cards for no reason at all. The yellow card can instead be used to stop a counter-attack or for a tactical foul. Today we received unnecessary yellow cards. Of course, the way we played today we don’t deserve to be in the semi-finals. But we still do have an opportunity to qualify…We must learn from the mistakes that we made today.”The defeat to Mumbai marked their third successive loss at home. Their last two matches saw them lose 1-0 to Chennaiyin FC and 2-1 to Atlético de Kolkata at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, and Vingada confessed that his heart goes out to the home fans, who have flocked to the stadium in thousands on a consistent basis. “The fans as I told you deserved more than what they received today. I am not saying that my players didn’t try or didn’t fight. Some players were crying and also some were very depressed, especially Wellington [Gomes]…For the passion that the fans showed today, they definitely deserved more than we gave them. The fans must be sad but we are also sad with ourselves,” the 63-year-old said.“Football keeps changing from game to game but today was very bad. I am sad not only because we lost but also we didn’t give the fans what they deserve. In football, we can lose many things but never your dignity or pride. Today we didn’t lose our dignity but we didn’t do everything we can to keep our pride. I would like to say sorry to the fans for today and we have to do better to make up to them.”NorthEast will also be without the services of the league’s joint top-scorer Emiliano Alfaro in their next match against FC Goa at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda on November 11. The Uruguayan striker picked up his fourth yellow card of the season resulting in an automatic one-match suspension. When asked how his side plans to cope with the loss of Alfaro, Vingada said: “Now yes we have to think about the next game. He got four yellow cards, of which only one was to stop a counter-attack from Delhi Dynamos FC. The other two yellow cards were because of altercations with the referee and today because of the dive. I have seen so many players falling down to influence the referees. So, I understand the referee but I don’t want to talk about the referee because we lost the game not because of the referee but ourselves. However, some injured players are recovering. Nico Velez is almost fit but today he wasn’t completely fit. Seityasen Singh came in after a long injury and he didn’t feel any discomfort, so he can be a better option for the next game.”
