Indian Super League: Clean Sheet Pleases David James the Most as Kerala Blasters Top Delhi Dynamos

Delhi Dynamos boss Harm van Veldhoven feels that his side were unlucky to suffer a narrow 1-0 defeat to Kerala Blasters despite putting in a lot of effort at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium on Sunday.

Following their defeat to FC Goa in their last fixture, the Dynamos were expected to make a strong comeback against Kerala Blasters.

Although they started off the game strongly, they were unable to break the deadlock and the first half ended with a 0-0 scoreline.

In the second half the Blasters found the net through substitute Penn Orji, whose strike proved to be enough to seal the three points as the Dynamos were unable to muster up an equaliser.

And Van Veldhoven, who admits that the defeat was very hard to digest, feels that his side need to learn from their mistakes and try to do well in their remaining fixtures.

"Losing is always hard. Of course when they fight all together it is good but losing is always terrible as a coach and also a player. At this moment you feel bad," the Dutch-Belgian boss told ISL's official website.

 "We have to sit together and we have players with experience. We have to learn from these situations. Of course we want to win for the public and that's what we will try to do."

"That's the most important team. Don't be afraid at this stage. All our levels are so close to each other that we have to fight every day to win every game."

However, the former FC Brussels boss feels that the Dynamos were much better than their opponents in the first period of the game.

"I think in the first 60 minutes we were absolutely the better team. In the first half we played really well and we had few good possibilities," added van Veldhoven.

"We did not score but we played really well. We had pressing, had good organization and tried to play balls on the outside. Then we were very unlucky to lose the ball on the 60th minute and concede a goal. Then we had to give more and more but the players were very disciplined."

Meanwhile Blasters player-manager David James had nothing but praise for his side following their away win against Delhi Dynamos.

"We all are playing unbelievingly well. Today, we made many clearances and tackles and that's what we need to do," the former England goalkeeper said on Sunday.

James says that he is especially pleased to see his side keep yet another clean sheet.

"If every individual in the team has the desire of not conceding, then, that desire translates to the entire team as a unit to not concede," said the former Liverpool goalkeeper adding, "If we were scoring 3-4 goals every game, then the defence would have had less pressure. We have to keep clean sheets in order to get the wins if not the draws."

Despite their good form of late, James insists that the Blasters are not taking things for granted as they still have a lot of fixtures remaining.

"We have 5-6 games to go in the league and hopefully three more in knockout stages, so the season is far from over," he mused.