Gor Mahia coach Johnathan McKinstry believes his players must put in extra effort if they are to retain the FKF Premier League title.
K’Ogalo opened up a four-point gap at the summit of the 18-team table following their 2-0 victory against FC Talanta, with goals from Boniface Omondi and Austin Odhiambo sealing the much-needed victory on Sunday.
Despite the victory, which saw K’Ogalo maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign, the Northern Irish tactician was not a happy man as he called out some of his players for laxity in winning matches, insisting there were a few of them, who he kept reminding of what to do which was not good enough for the title-chasing side.
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“I must admit I was not happy with our first 20-30 minutes, and it was the same case a week ago in the draw against Nzoia, I just feel there are some players, who were not doing the running,” said McKinstry, adding: “We always say talent, technique, the special sparkle in the game is all great but it has to come after the hard work, the running and I thought there were few people who needed reminding on that.”
McKinstry further stated he had picked a squad to face Talanta that could run 100 miles for the team but most of them failed the test. “I knew the kind of game to expect from Talanta and I selected a team and squad of players who would run 100 miles for the team but they are not worried about themselves and they want to play for the badge and there are some other guys who need to learn that a little bit,” explained the former Uganda Cranes tactician.
After a 0-0 result in the first half, McKinstry explained, how he managed to break down Talanta by saying: “We knew by playing two strikers, that Talanta would fall into a rhythm of defending against them and when the correct moment of the game came to put some creativity, Talanta could not pick them up and that is what we saw and it helped us to get the win.”
The victory enabled Gor Mahia to move to 31 points, four more than second-placed KCB, while Homeboyz, who suffered a shock 2-1 defeat against AFC Leopards are third. Gor Mahia will next host Bandari at Machakos Stadium on Friday.