Ashley Westwood brands Mumbai FC a ‘bad team’, admits his side didn’t do enough

by Kaushal Shukla January 28, 2016

Bengaluru FC came unstuck at Cooperage as their struggles against Mumbai FC continued after a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Khalid Jamil’s men on Wednesday. The defeat ended Bengaluru FC’s fifteen game unbeaten run in the I-League, but didn’t dislodge them off the top of the table as Mohun Bagan didn’t play in the league in this round.

However, Head Coach Ashley Westwood was quite blunt as he gave away his post-match thoughts when he called Mumbai FC a bad team when assessing his team’s upturn in performance in the second half. “Mumbai FC didn’t have many chances in the second half as they are a bad team. We changed things a bit in the second half and had better half. We had two big chances and a penalty which wasn’t given, and instead our player was booked, and that was quite harsh on us,” ranted Westwood as he spoke about the second half of the game.

The Bengaluru FC gaffer was critical of his side’s wastefulness in the second half as he felt a breakthrough goal would have spurred them to a point if not a win. “We were much better in the second half and wasted two great chances. Had we scored one of them, they would have panicked. There was only one team that looked like scoring in that second half and we would have been able to draw the game, if not win it,” claimed Westwood

The Englishman felt his side were up against it after going 2-0 down in the first fifteen minutes of the game as they conceded what he thought were freakish goals. “The first goal was a deflection, but was an early goal. I thought we could come back from there. But then we conceded a second goal, which was a clearance that somehow found its way in. The goalkeeper was blinded by the lights and then we were up against it. We tried changing it in the second half, but we didn’t take our chances. It’s alright and you can’t win every game,” Westwood explained how the situation turned against his side’s favour in the opening minutes of play.

Despite the defeat, Ashely Westwood was upbeat about his side’s credentials and claimed their form is still very much good enough to win them the league. “We have three wins and a loss, that’s nine points from twelve. I feel that’s championship material. If we can get nine points from every twelve available, we win the league. So it’s time to push this under the carpet and give a reaction in our next game against East Bengal,” stated the Bengaluru FC Head Coach.

Bengaluru FC are now winless in all the five games they have played against Mumbai FC, but Westwood dismissed suggestions that the Khalid Jamil led outfit has got under his skin. “Such things happen in football. Every team has a sort of a bogey team. I don’t think they have got under our skin. In the four games we drew before, we should have won each game out of that. Today we didn’t put the ball in the back of the net, so we didn’t deserve to win it. It’s part of the game,” Westwood opined.

Bengaluru FC face East Bengal in a crunch game on Sunday, that sees his side play their fifth game in fifteen days and a fourth one on the road. Such a hectic schedule saw Bengaluru fail to have a proper preparation ahead of the game, but Westwood refused to put it as an excuse. “We can’t give any excuse. We didn’t win as we didn’t play well enough. But we didn’t have a good preparation yesterday and some people at the club must take a look at themselves for that. The schedule is a bit unfair and one doesn’t know who comes up with it, but we have to get on with it and be ready for East Bengal,” the English Coach stated as he looked forward to the game in Kolkata.