KOCHI: Kerala Blasters FC finally registered their first home win of the season. Sadly, that happened in a near empty stadium. While an all-Malayali scoresheet brought back celebrations to Kochi after almost a year, only around five and a half thousand fans were around at the massive Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to cheer for the hosts.
Right from the beginning of the truncated ISL season, matchdays that once presented a swarm of yellow at Kaloor had shrunk to trickles of support. With the Blasters having started off poorly, the empty galleries marked a strong protest from the diehards against the club management. Fans began boycotting the matches of a ‘losing’ team, blaming mismanagement and allied issues.
On Saturday, the Blasters welcomed Jamshedpur FC in front of galleries with a banner reading ‘Our Loyalty Is to the Badge’ instead of Manjappada’s banners. Newly appointed manager Ashley Westwood and his team are re-instilling belief into the fans, though still swimming against the tide. After their first win of the season in Bengaluru on April 11, the Blasters managed to share points on Wednesday with NorthEast United.
On the day, the few specks of yellow that turned up in the bright, colourful galleries of the Nehru Stadium rejoiced as their team put on a dominant first-half display to defeat a Jamshedpur side placed five spots above them on the points table. Nihal Sudheesh and Vibin Mohanan scored for KBFC in a 2-0 victory as the hosts managed to ward off their rivals reduced to 10 men in the second half.