In a contest of prestige, spirited Kerala Blasters continued their revival in the league after a bad start by beating Pune FC 1-2 in an away match at Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi on Thursday. Though FC Pune City were clear favourites to win the game, a lacklustre performance cost them 3 points and 5th position in the league.

On the other hand, Kerala blasters, who were high in morale after drawing at Salt lake stadium with ISL giants Atletico de Kolkata, repeated their good performance with attacking football to register season’s first win. Kerala Blasters were dominant in possession from the start of the game and found themselves in the opposition’s half easily. In 8th minute, C S Sabeeth almost opened the scoring for Kerala Blasters when a lucrative cross from Renedy Singh, who played at the right wing, found the striker. However, the ball was punched away by Emanuele Belradi.

Within a few minutes, a quickly taken free-kick by Goossens found David Trezeguet and the veteran scored his second goal of the season for Pune FC with a brilliant volley. As Trezeguet put Pune in front, Kerala spent a restless few minutes as experienced attacking midfielder Renedy Singh and holding midfielder Mehtab Hossain were substituted.

However, throughout these substitutions and a few tense moments, Kerala maintained their domination over the game. Breakthrough came for Kerala, when a superbly taken corner by Scottish Stephen Pearson pierced the Pune defence and fell to the former Auxerre player and captain of Kerala FC, Cederic Hengbart.