KOCHI: Even a fortnight ago, the prospects were looking rather bleak for Kerala Blasters Football Club. The Kochi-based side, which came into the season full of expectations signing marquee names like former Manchester United stars Dimitar Berbatov and Wes Brown, found themselves at the wrong end of the Indian Super League points table halfway through the season and were seemingly heading for a crisis that could wreck their season.
Rene Meulensteen, someone who had proven his coaching ability at perhaps the biggest football club in the world in United, was sacked after a 3-1 pummelling to Bengaluru FC at Kochi on the New Year’s Eve. David James, the former England goalkeeper who had guided the team into the final of the maiden ISL season as a player-manager, was appointed the new head coach and had settled for a 1-1 draw against FC Pune City with the mood not looking to lift soon.
During the match against Pune on January 4, you could spot a lot of empty seats at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium. With only 26,586 fans turning up, it was the lowest home attendance in Blasters’ short history. For a club and its fanbase that took a lot of pride in this statistic, it wasn’t ideal to see the dwindling attendance for Blasters’ matches in Kochi which used to touch 60,000-mark often.
However, a lot can happen over 10 days. Blasters have now picked up seven points from their last four games -- the same amount they had collected from their first seven outings. James’ boys travelled on the road since that stalemate against Pune and won two of the three encounters.
First, Iain Hume, who looks to have rejuvenated himself, scored a hattrick to undo Delhi Dynamos 3-1 in New Delhi before the Canadian scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Mumbai City FC at the Mumbai Football Arena. The next one at Jamshedpur after a long tiring trip didn’t go as expected as a 22-second goal from Jerry Mawihmingthanga spoiled all of the Blasters’ gameplan. However, the team fought valiantly and scored a 94th-minute goal through Mark Sifneos to finish the game 2-1.
This also meant fans were back in number at the JNI Stadium to make it once again the yellow fortress as Blasters faced off against FC Goa. And James felt the support from the sea of yellow will be crucial as they head into the business end of the season.
“This is the toughest phase for Kerala in the league and we have all got something to prove. The games are coming thick and fast and with the fans acting as our 12th man, we are confident we can put up a good display and improve our standing in the points table,” said the Blasters coach.
Blasters are now a touching distance away from the top four teams in the league and a change warranted or not, has seemed to have lifted the players’ morale and team’s performances. Blasters will now face Delhi Dynamos on January 27 in Kochi where they will look to repeat their performance from earlier this month. Then it is once again travelling days for the club as they travel to Pune, Kolkata and Guwahati before returning to Kochi for their final home fixture of the season.