Kerala Blasters FC were held to a 0 – 0 draw by Chennaiyin FC in Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Friday. In an end-to-end encounter, the hosts had their fair share of chances and even missed a second-half penalty. The draw means that qualification for the playoffs is no longer in Kerala’s hands, and speaking to the media during the post-match press conference was their head coach David James.

The Englishman admitted that he could not blame his team for the draw since they gave it their all. “We had a lot of chances, lot of them on target,” James inferred. “But they kept saving them. So, I can’t fault for one minute the performance by the team. We are frustrated of course, because we did not win. Granted, Chennaiyin did not need to win the game in one sense. But, we kept hitting the target and their keeper kept saving. That is always frustrating.”

He further praised his players by stating, “I have to applaud the players. Well done for their effort, can’t fault that one bit. I can’t fault their desire, the attempts made on goal. Even our keeper (Paul Rachubka) made some crucial saves to keep it at 0 – 0. So, I think it was a full-squad performance today.”

While the result means that qualification is now clearly out of Kerala’s control, James pointed out that the scenario would have been similar even if they would have won. “The reality is we could have won this game and still not be in control of whether or not we qualify,” remarked the former England custodian. “So, our position of relying on others is still the same, if not more acute. We need some heavy results going our way, rather than the odd results. Mumbai, Goa and Jamshedpur are all in there. It was important that we did not lose, but that is a slight improvement on not losing.”

The 47-year-old also lauded Chennaiyin keeper Karanjit Singh whose heroics time and again denied Kerala a goal. “I think today their goalkeeper (Karanjit) was man of the match,” James stated. “We did everything we could to try and win it, and he got in the way. It’s frustrating for us, but credit to him for being so good today.”