Kerala’s home woes continue

A slice of action from the game between Kerala Blasters and FC Pune City. PTI

Kerala Blasters FC’s dry run at home in the Hero Indian Super League continued but this time it got worse as they were handed a 1-0 defeat by FC Pune City at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Friday.

Kerala have been winless at home this season and have not picked up full points since their opening round win against ATK. Fans have been hoping there would be a turnaround but instead it were Pune City who registered only their second win of the campaign.

The only goal of the match came from Marcelinho. The win takes Pune to eighth spot and are now only a point off Kerala who remain a spot above. Blasters are winless in 10 games now.

The visitors opened the scoring in the 20th minute through a deflected effort from Marcelinho. Ashique Kuruniyan cut inside from the left flank and fed the forward with a through-ball into the box. Marcelinho’s shot took a wicked deflection off Anas’ legs and found the bottom right corner.

Kerala saw a lot of the ball for the rest of the half as they battled to find an equaliser. However, Pune’s defence looked unusually solid as they kept the home side at bay.