Chennaiyin FC scored a 1-0 win over former champion Hyderabad FC in their ISL league match at the GMC Balayogi Stadium here on Monday.
Conor Shields’ seventh minute goal for Chennaiyin meant that Hyderabad, playing its first home game of the season, was yet to get off the mark after three games to be at the bottom of the points table.
Hyderabad grew into the game, created plenty of chances, with the likes of Aaren D’Silva, Pennanen and Joe Knowles coming close on a couple of occasions.
Mohammad Yasir was impressive throughout the game while Joao Victor, Sahil Tavora, Nikhil Poojary and Vignesh Dakshinamurthy played their role to keep Chennaiyin under pressure.
Oswaldo Alanis and Chinglensana Konsham were solid at the back and hardly afforded the visitors a sniff on goal before pushing for an equaliser late in the game.
Gurmeet Singh stood tall when called upon but it was a textbook smash and grab from Chennaiyin, who made 30 fouls, saw six yellow cards, and scored from one of its only two shots on target on the night.
Jonathan Moya came on for his debut for the home team with the likes of Felipe Amorim, Makan Chothe and Abdul Rabeeh did their bit but HFC failed to find the back of the net and dropped all three points on the night.
The result: Hyderabad FC 0 lost to Chennaiyin FC 1 (Conor Shields 7).
