It was on Christmas evening last year that NorthEast United FC had last gifted their fans a victory at their home at Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati.
Since then, they have had a forgettable last-place finish to their Indian Super League 2022-23 campaign and then have buckled up in piecing together a new-look squad to lift themselves out of the abyss in the tenth edition of ISL.
And on Friday, the Juan Pedro Benali-coached Highlanders announced themselves as one of the teams to watch out for when they thrashed the visiting Chennaiyin FC 3-0 in a dominant show in Guwahati.
While the Spanish coach's tactics looked to have hit the nail for the northeastern team, NEUFC have also found the star that they had been looking for over the several seasons when they groomed and nurtured local talents, in the inimitable Parthib Gogoi.
Gogoi, who shone bright and scored the lone goal for NEUFC in the opener against Mumbai City FC, was at his creative best against Chennaiyin as he started a move from the centre and after a one-two with Romain Philippoteaux, curled in a wonderful right-footed strike into the top right corner of the goal in the 42nd minute.
The breakthrough, ahead of the half-time, had looked to be in the offing as the hosts kept invading the opposition box through Gogoi, Phalguni Singh, Nestor Albiach and Philippoteaux.
Connor Shields, at the other end, had been instrumental in creating chances for Owen Coyle-coached Chennaiyin from the beginning. But none of his efforts and that of his teammates could come to fruition as the hosts extended their lead just after the change of ends.
Another Indian attacker who had been impressive for the team in the first half, Phalguni, struck in the 48th minute after a counter-attack led to an inch-perfect cross from Albiach that met an onrushing Phalguni in front of goal who just nudged it in with his right foot.
Having already lost their opening match against Odisha FC, the two-goal deficit sent the Chennaiyin XI in desperate need of a fightback. Instead, they suffered another blow in losing goalkeeper Samik Mitra to injury at the very end and Coyle had to hand Mitra's jersey to defender Ankit Mukherjee, with the team having already made all the substitutions allowed.
It led to the final nail in the visitors' coffin as NEUFC defender Asheer Akhtar, finding Mukherjee out of place, sent in a shot into the goal in the 10th minute of injury time to add to Chennaiyin's woes and to the joy of the Highlanders' supporters.
