Westwood kicks-off the mind games by going after Bagan's philosophy, management and coach

THE BENGALURU FC COACH Ashley Westwood turned on the head ahead of Saturday's mega fixture against Mohun Bagan by calling the opponent team, and its coach, out on their concerns over fixtures and the way AIFF has treated them.

Right off the bat, Westwood denied tomorrow's match was anything more than just another league game for him. When asked if he was looking at this game as a grudge match from last season's title-decider, he said,

"We never lost. We drew. So it's just a football match. No grudges... there's still 8 games to go, 24 points to play for. It's a big game, since it's against one of the title contenders. So it won't make or break the league. But it's one of the eye-catching fixtures of the whole season."

Talking about fixtures and player availability, Westwood turned the spotlight towards the opponent team, pointing out that BFC have released several players to the U-23 national team playing at the South Asian Games while Mohun Bagan haven't released some of their men who were called up,

"We've stuck to the rules and released players for the national camp unlike certain teams. We've rotated as per need. We built a squad allowing for people to be injured or away. We'll go after them with what we've got and hopefully it'll be enough... it's a compact season and you have to deal with it. Mohun Bagan have been fortunate, they've been looked upon favourably. They've had one of their game postponed, another brought forward. They were driven to the airport by the AIFF... I'm not sure if Jeje and Fanai are here, because they got called for the South Asian Games. So I think they may not play tomorrow. So maybe Mohun Bagan will be missing key players as well if they've stuck to the rules."

Talking about how his attack has performed so far, Westwood expressed satisfaction with his players,

"We have four different scorers. Midfielders have scored, the strikers have pitched in. We've got 3 lads on 3 goals apiece. It's the sign of a good squad, unlike certain other teams who depend on one or two individuals to get them goals."

He once again turned a critical eye on Bagan when talking about the biggest threats his team will face tomorrow,

"Mohun Bagan are heavily relying on the foriegn players. Katsumi, Sony and Glen are the main threats. It's a club that invests on foreigners, it's a club that relies on foreigners. As a football club in India, you should have a responsibility towards developing Indian football. In the other game, Mallick, that young lad, got substituted in 13 minutes. So it shows you the make-up of Mohun Bagan and what they're here for."

As a parting gesture, Westwood also took a shot at the recent controversy regarding Sanjay Sen's comments about the AIFF, saying, 

"I'm not that concerned about fixtures as long as it's fair and even. That's all we ask for. Certain things are out of a coach's control so I don't worry about that... it's for the AIFF to look at such things... of course we can't comment too much. I'm certain if I had said some of the stuff that the Mohun Bagan coach has been saying, I wouldn't be on the touchline tomorrow."