The improvement was obvious after the Kerala Blasters went back to a flat back-four in their last ISL 2015 match against Chennaiyin FC, even if it wasn't good enough to earn them all three points.
Up next is a match against the league leaders, the team that have impressed one and all with their attacking endeavour in this season's Indian Super League – FC Pune City.
The Kerala Blasters and PuneCity played a brilliant match in Pune a week ago, with three sumptuous crosses from Nicky Shorey proving to be the different in the end.
After jumping into a lead in just the first minute, Kerala threw away the advantage, before somehow heading into halftime a 2-2, thanks to a brace from Mohammed Rafi.
However, Tuncay Sanli, who has shown his class every now and then, proved to be the difference, getting on the end of a brilliant cross from Shorey to give Pune the victory and keep them on course for a place in the semifinals, while ending Peter Taylor's association with the Sachin Tendulkar-owned team.
David Platt's men have played some of the best football in ISL 215 so far, impressing considerably with their attacking verve and ability to bang in the goals, evidenced by the fact that they are the joint top scorers in the league.
Kerala, with a new manager in Terry Phelan, will take heart from that performance against Pune, knowing some better defending and they would have come away with all three points.
Trevor Morgan, who took charge of the game against Chennaiyin on Saturday, immediately seemed to improve the defence, while the Kerala Blasters also looked a lot more promising going forward. Phelan's job now will be to convert that promise into results, because if the Kerala Blasters do not pick up wins from now, they can wave that semifinal place goodbye, even as early as the halfway stage of the league phase of ISL 2015.
"It is a disappointing result because we missed a lot of chances that we ourselves created," Morgan said after the 1-1 draw. "There were a lot of opportunities created. Chris Dagnall scored a beautiful goal from a cross, the attack was happening."
The Kerala Blasters, bottom of the league at the moment, with just five points from seven games, now owe the best crowd in the ISL a victory, ideally a victory with a few goals thrown in.
ISL 2015 schedule: Kerala Blasters vs FC Pune City.
Date: Wednesday, 4 November.
Time: 7 pm IST (1.30 pm GMT, 9.30 am ET).
Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi.
TV listings: India: Star Sports 2/HD, Star Sports 3/HD (Hindi), Star Gold (Hindi), Star Utsav (Hindi), Asianet Movies (Malayalam), Jaya Max (Tamil), Jalsha Movies (Bengali), Suvarna TV (Kannada). UK: Star Gold. Australia and USA: Fox Sports. SouthEast Asia and Europe: EuroSport. Middle East and North Africa: OSN. Southern and Sub Saharan Africa: SuperSport.
