Ashley Westwood: Kerala Blasters held to 0-0 draw by Mumbai City in Kochi in ISL opener
Kerala Blasters FC and Mumbai City FC played out a goalless draw at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Saturday in the Indian Super League 2026-27 season, the Blasters' first home fixture of the campaign.
Both sides left with a point, with Kerala Blasters moving to fifth place in the league table; the team created numerous opportunities but, according to coach Ashley Westwood, a combination of finishing shortcomings and low fitness levels prevented a victory. Westwood addressed the media in a post-match press conference following the match.
Westwood pointed directly to match fitness as a decisive factor, saying: "I think clearly, obvious, fitness was obviously missing. I hate talking about it. I hate talking about what happened to us because it sounds like an excuse. It’s not. It’s just a fact. We just need a bit more time. We need to get a little bit sharper, a little bit fitter. We need players that can last 95, 96 minutes. They can’t at the moment." He added that the preparation time had been limited: "Such a short preparation time. It’s only our third game. We normally have six games in the pre-season. Other teams have had tournaments, Durand Cups, IFA Shields, whatever it is. We just need to be able to last 90 minutes."
On whether the late dip in energy was tactical or physical, Westwood attributed it to fatigue, naming specific players and the impact on substitutions: "No, just running out of steam. We’ve obviously got Nebo and Luna on that; played very, very well, but just completely ran out of petrol, if you like. Other players, Sanan, was five 10 minutes after halftime; you could clearly see he was on his last legs. Momo, as well, was tired; he was not chasing as hard as he was doing in the first half. Collectively, as a team, we just ran out of petrol. So, we had to make substitutions all the time. When you’re making substitutions, you don’t get an immediate impact all the time from the bench." He outlined the immediate recovery plan: "They’ll be fitter after this, of course. We’ll recover tomorrow. The other players will work hard tomorrow. We’ll get some running, some metres in the belt. We’ll recover Tuesday again, then we’ll train Wednesday, Thursday, train Friday and travel Friday and then into Chennai."
Westwood addressed the Blasters' inability to finish chances and placed responsibility on individual composure: "I think you’re relying on individuals showing a bit of quality, which you can’t coach. It’s up to them to show a bit of composure and to make the right decisions. That’s quite hard to coach. As long as our shape’s looking good, as long as our intensity is good, as long as our game plan is good, our chances of creating, we’re making the pitch big when we have the ball in possession, and we’re getting in good areas. But it’s up to them to finish it off. That’s not my job." The side built most of its first-half attacks down the flanks, particularly from Korou Singh and Mohammed Sanan.
On attacking patterns and player roles, Westwood described the setup and the difficulty in converting crosses: "We had two number 10s out there with Nebo and Luna. We had a number nine in Momo trying to get into the areas. We have five on the attack; you can’t really put any more there. They’re getting in good positions. Balls coming across the box; we just didn’t get on the end of it. We attack wherever the space is, to be honest. If Mumbai are going to set up nice and narrow, then of course you attack down the wings. If they sit nice and high without two sitting midfielders, which they didn’t today, they have two sitting midfielders, then you’ve obviously got to try and utilise where the space is."
Westwood also outlined his bench options and substitution thinking while explaining the constraints posed by fitness: "No update. He’s fit. He’s training every day. He’s pushing to get a place. You obviously look at the balance of things, and we’re looking at who’s on the bench. We have Eben coming on. We have Sree coming on. We have Andre Green coming on. We have Vibin coming on. That’s four attacking players. We can only make five substitutions and, of course, you’ve always got to try and keep one back in case someone gets cramped, as Luna had in the last few minutes." He added: "If you make your five substitutions before the 80-minute mark, the way the fitness is, you guarantee that someone’s going to drop in the last five or 10 minutes, and that’s what happened. You can’t make any more attacking substitutions. We put four positive subs on to try and affect things. They didn’t affect the game as well as we would have liked them to when they came on, but that’s football. What can you do as a coach? You can make five subs, and we made four and, as you said, we held one back. Luckily, we did hold one back because, obviously, we had to put one on in the last few minutes when Luna couldn’t move."
The match drew one of the larger recent crowds at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, recorded at 40,014, and Westwood praised the supporters while reflecting on the players' response: "No, the crowd were great. All the players were excited. Everybody was devastated if you didn’t make the bench. Everybody was devastated if you didn’t make the starting 11 because the fans are there and everybody wants that. The lads were actually gutted, I think, that they couldn’t get their phones on the pitch before the game because you obviously have to stick your phones in the bag, which feels a little bit crazy." He added: "For them to enjoy that, maybe send it to the families they can, but they walked out there, and they came back in the dressing room with big smiles on their faces, hair on their backs and neck standing up because they wanted to desperately go and win the game for the fans."
Westwood set out immediate targets and season ambitions, saying the team had collected "four points up so far out of nine" and noting a straightforward next benchmark: "We’ll be on for at the minute, like a top six finish if you like, but if we win away to Chennai on Saturday, that’ll put us on seven points from 12, which, considering how we started and where this club was, don’t forget it almost folded; it almost didn’t exist." He concluded by stating the club's aims: "We’re going to be contenders for the top six for sure; I want top four, top two, even top of the league. We’re going to push. Whoever wins the league has got to be a good side because if we’re not winning it, then whoever is has got to be a good side and beat us on our own territory. We’ve not been beaten here for a long time, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure that remains, and we’ll do everything we can to keep putting on good performances for the fans."
