Kochi: Kerala Blasters FC (KBFC) will host Bengaluru FC on Monday in the Indian Super League at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium here with the confidence gained from the away draws against Jamshedpur FC and FC Pune City.

A win followed by four draws on the trot would read disappointing on the card, but for David James and his boys it tells a different story. Mumbai City FC and Delhi Dynamos FC had forced the Yellow Brigade to share points in front of the home crowd in a similar fashion. And those draws would have weighed more on the psyche of the players than how it reflected on the score table for the team. But James was able to inspire his boys to rally from goal deficits to snatch draws in unfavourable away conditions, not ones, twice before heading back home.

The team showed a desire to win on both the occasions and the results could have been different with a bit of luck. Even when he said that it is nice to stay unbeaten, the Blasters' English coach did not hide his disappointment of losing out on points after the Pune match. “It’s just another point and the unbeaten run is just helping us tally one point at a time. If we do that till the end of the season, we won’t make the play-offs,” James said in the post-match presser.

Blasters looked more aggressive against Jamshedpur and Pune. Blasters' forwards C K Vineeth, Matej Poplatnik and Slavisla Stojanovic were impressive in the fighting draws on the road. And if they continue in the same vein against Bengaluru, Kochi crowd could witness a football feast.

Carles Cuadrat's Bengaluru, sitting pretty in fourth place on the standings, won't be easy opponents for Blasters even in home conditions. Bengaluru have also kept a clean sheet in their ISL-5 campaign, drawing one and winning rest of their four fixtures. Sunil Chhetri and Miku ably supported by Erik Paartalu, Udanta Singh and Xisco Hernandez could keep Sandesh Jhingan's defensive line, that includes the likes of Nemanja Lakic-Pesic, Lalruatthara and Mohamad Rakip, super busy.

Bengaluru bounced back in their match against ATK from a goal deficit to win it. After taking the lead in the early minutes of second half, Bengaluru defence held off ATK for the remainder of the game to take home three points. Bengaluru, feared for their set pieces, would come prepared for Blasters and their fans.

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