Gor Mahia coach explains slow restart, heaps praise on youngster
Gor Mahia head coach Jonathan McKinstry has attributed the team’s slow restart in the FKFPL to the long rest given to his players during the international break.
McKinstry returned to lead Gor Mahia after his stint with Gambia, where he oversaw a 5-1 win against Seychelles and a 3-2 loss to Gabon in his first two matches as head coach.
Gor 1-0 Sofapaka
Speaking after Kogalo’s 1-0 win against Sofapaka at the Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos, McKinstry admitted his team was not at their best as they laboured past a relegation-threatened Batoto Ba Mungu.
“After the game against Muhoroni Youth four weeks ago, we gave the guys a couple of weeks off because we knew that when the team comes back, we got the Kagame Cup, the pre-season tourney in Nigeria, and the Champions League to prepare for," McKinstry told Gor Mahia Media.
"So we actually started that rest and recovery during the international window. I think we looked like a team that had not played a competitive game for four weeks, but I thought we controlled the game well.”
A thunderous long-range strike by Sylvester Owino in the 50th minute was all that separated the two teams, propelling the Green Army to 70 points with two matches to play.
The Irishman also reserved special praise for young Mark Shaban, who impressed in his cameo off the bench for Kogalo.
“I was really impressed by the substitutions who came in. Young Mark Shaban, only 17 years old, came on in the last twenty minutes, and almost all our players were trying to pass him the ball. I think you can see in that little glimpse how talented he is given he also had a couple of chances,” McKinstry added.
Gor Mahia will now shift their attention to midweek action when they host 14th-placed Talanta FC, who are not entirely assured of league safety, in what will be Kogalo’s last home game for the 2023/24 season.
The FKFPL champions are then set to represent the country in the upcoming Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) Kagame Cup in Tanzania and Zanzibar between July 6-22.
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