Kerala Blasters FC host the table-toppers of the league phase, Chennaiyin FC, in the first leg of their semifinal, and assistant coach Trevor Morgan is looking forward to making the home advantage count. Having lost to Chennaiyin in both their games in the league phase, Morgan however acknowledged that Chennaiyin are a strong team, and that Kerala will have a difficult task in stopping their opponents from creating and scoring chances.But the fact that the Kerala have conceded only 11 goals so far, which is the lowest in the league, gives the England-born gaffer confidence that his team can stop Chennai from scoring. “We are a difficult team to play against at home, having lost only one match on home turf. We would be playing in front of our fantastic supporters and we would like to make the home advantage count,” he said at the pre-match press conference in Kochi.Addressing the concern regarding the low number of goals scored – Kerala have managed only nine in 14 league games -- Morgan chose to draw positives from his team’s overall attacking play. “It is not easy to score against anybody. When we don’t create opportunities, the forwards come under pressure. But we have been creating chances and we just need to ensure that we score more goals than we concede,” he explained.Despite having scored four goals and assisted his teammates in finding the net as well, Ian Hume, who was also at the media interaction, refused to be satisfied with his performance as a striker. “My job is to score goals and I would have loved to have more goals against my name. I’m sure that the other strikers in the team must be feeling the same. Goals have come from different players. Yes, we were a bit fortunate the other day (against FC Pune City). But everyone is working hard and we are creating chances.” Hume also added that Alessandro Nesta’s presence in the opposition camp does not put any additional pressure on the team.For the most part of the league round, the passionate Blasters’ supporters were ruing their bad luck. In spite of outplaying the opponent on the day on many occasions, the team found it incredibly difficult to score goals and win matches. But their tryst with luck changed drastically in their last round league match against Pune City, which was a do-or-die match for both teams.Looking back at this match, which Pune dominated, Morgan said, “We couldn’t stop them from creating chances, but we did stop them from scoring. That is a positive. We gave away the possession unnecessarily in the midfield and that put us under pressure. Our performance was not up to the mark, but we have been working on during the training. We are also happy with Sandip Nandy’s performance. When David James got injured, he stepped up, took the opportunity and has done a good job.”On a closing note, Morgan said, “With the season being short, it is difficult to find the right partnerships. We have been experimenting to see which players are able to combine together well. You will need to wait till tomorrow to find out what combination we play.”
