NorthEast United FC failed to register the first win of their campaign as they lost 2-1 to Chennaiyin FC at the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) on Monday.

The game marked the return of Federico Gallego to the Highlanders’ starting lineup and the Uruguayan weaved his magic in the initial 20 minutes before a robust but fair challenge from Narayan Das forced him to go off the field with a knee injury.

Lallianzuala Chhangte opened the scoring on the night in the 41st minute, with a superb finish on the half-turn that took everyone by surprise. Suhair Vadakkepeedika pounced on a goalkeeping blunder from Vishal Kaith to equalize in the 50th minute.

Chennaiyin FC’s skipper Anirudh Thapa restored the lead for his side in the 74th minute as he burst through NorthEast United’s defensive line, and blasted it past Subasish Roy Choudhary.

The Highlanders would be desperate to grab all three points against an FC Goa side that has looked vulnerable thus far, when they face off on December 4.

Khalid Jamil urged his players to brush aside the disappointments on the night, as he shared his insights on the game tonight in the official post-match press conference.

Here are excerpts from Jamil’s press conference:

How would you rate today’s performance?

Performance was okay, we scored, we equalised, we dominated the game in patches, but we need to improve, as a team we have to play, we must believe in ourselves. Not to think of anything negative, we must think positively.

After conceding the goal in the first half, your team started well in the second half. Where do you think it went wrong?

It wasn’t our day as you can see, Gallego got injured in the first half and after that, we missed Brown today, and talking about the remaining players, they worked hard but the combination wasn’t there among ourselves.

Federico Gallego and Deshorn Brown weren’t there. What exactly is the condition with Gallego and why was Deshorn missing?

 We have to see, tomorrow maybe we will talk to physio and doctor, we’ll see what his condition is, let’s hope that he comes back soon.