"We're all devastated that we didn't win": Ashley Westwood after Kerala Blasters' draw against Mumbai City FC

The match between the Islanders & the Blasters ended 0-0 at Kochi.

Kerala Blasters FC played out a goalless draw against Mumbai City FC in their first home fixture of the Indian Super League 2026-27 season at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Saturday. Both teams earned a point from the contest, with the Blasters moving to fifth place in the league standings.

Despite having a good number of chances, a lack of finishing accuracy and the low level of fitness meant that Kerala Blasters had to share the spoils with the Islanders. Following the game, Kerala Blasters FC head coach Ashley Westwood addressed the media.

Here is the detailed report of the post-match press conference of the Indian Super League match between Kerala Blasters FC and Mumbai City FC.

Hear from Ashley Westwood after the Mumbai City FC game. 🎙️

Watch the full post-match press conference

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— Kerala Blasters FC (@KeralaBlasters) October 26, 2026

What was missing in the game?

When asked what went wrong for the Kerala Blasters in the game, Ashley Westwood highlighted that the lack of proper preseason meant that the players did not have the benchmark fitness level that would help them to play the whole game.

However, the coach accepted the draw result and took it as a positive, considering that the team was put together at the last minute.

“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.”

“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.”

“It’s frustrating sometimes as a manager when you’ve got to make substitutions that are linked to match fitness, but that’s just where we are. It’s not an excuse. The good thing is we’ve picked four points up so far out of nine, a two-away game, so we’re okay. 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.”

“When we got put together at the last minute, then we’re doing something right. I’m sure Mumbai have aspirations of being in the top six, top four themselves. I think we were the better side. We just ran out of fitness and just lost our edge in the last 25, 30 minutes because we just need to get some sustainability to last 90 minutes.” Ashley Westwood.

On the dip in energy of the players

When asked if the dip in energy was a tactical issue or fatigue, Ashley yet again highlighted the fitness issue of players like Momo and Sanan, who were on their last legs early in the second half, forcing him to make changes.

Ashley Westwood added that the team will recover on Tuesday and will train till Friday before heading to Chennai.

Following the game, the team will focus on conditioning for the games at the end of next month and in December.

“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.”

“You lose a little bit of control, a little bit of stability. It comes when you’re making multiple changes, but you have to because nobody’s fit. 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.”

“So it quickly comes round. Then we’re desperate for those four games for a little bit of time where we can concentrate on conditioning work, a little bit of gym work as well as field work, and we’ll get fitter for the games that are coming in at the end of November and the beginning of December.” Ashley Westwood replied.

On the lack of finishing efficiency

The Blasters had a good number of chances in the game against NorthEast United FC and Mumbai City FC. However, everything looked in favour of the Blasters until it came to the final third, where they were struggling to put the ball past the net.

When asked on how does the gaffer plan to tackle this issue, Ashley Westwood replied;

“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.”

“We give them all the information. We’re still in the opposition to give them the right game or the right tactics and we did that today because we thought we really dominated the first half. We just ran our steam, and that also comes from match sharpness. You can’t expect players to be cutting-edge sharp when they haven’t had enough time and enough game practice to get that out of them. It’s classic right around football.”

Why not attack centrally?

Kerala Blasters crafted most of their attacks in the first half using the wings, courtesy of Korou Singh and Mohammed Sanan. However, despite creating a good number of chances, the attacks from the wings were not really efficient for the Kerala Blasters.

When asked why the team was adamant on attacking through the wings, despite having chances to attack centrally, Ashley Westwood justified;

“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.”

“We’ve got it behind them a few times; we’ve got it in space between the lines, between the defence and the midfield. You’ve just got to have your match-winners to produce them and put the ball in the back of the net. That’s nothing I can affect really from the sideline. It’s down to our attacking players to score goals.”

Update on Yasir

“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.” Ashley Westwood replied positively.

“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.”

On playing in front of the Kochi crowd

The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium recorded one of its largest attendances in recent times, with 40,014 people for the Kerala Blasters FC vs Mumbai City FC game.

When asked about the fan support and the team’s experience playing in front of the crowd, Ashley Westwood replied positively;

“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.”

“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.”

“They tried everything to do that and they didn’t, so playing in front of the fans is a huge honour and they need to remember that and respect it because one day you sat like me at 50 years of age and it’s gone, so they should relish and enjoy and really embrace what the fans brought, which they did, and they tried everything.” Ashley Westwood with a strong note.

Looking forward to the campaign

Looking forward, Ashley Westwood reassured the fans that the Kerala Blasters will be contenders for the top six, and he wishes for at least a top four finish.

He later said that he even hopes for a top-of-the-league finish, and the team will push for their goals and keep putting on good performances for the fans.

“We’ve come back to Kerala now; we’ve been here six days. The lads are starting to settle, and they’re putting on a performance that shows they’re happy, they’re united, we’ve got good spirit, we’ve got good desire. We’re all devastated that we didn’t win, which shows that we are happy.”

“We’re drawing, we know we want to win, we want to give the crowds entertaining football, which I think we did. It’s just where we are again with fitness, which is boring to keep mentioning, but we will get fitter, we will get stronger,and we’re not going to be fighting at the bottom of the league like last season before I came.”

“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.”

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