Gor Mahia head coach Johnathan McKinstry has explained why they struggled to find a way past Shabana after they narrowly beat 10-man Tore Bobe in an FKFPL match played at the Kasarani Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
Shabana adopted a more cautious approach against Gor Mahia after being made to atone for their mistake of playing aggressively against Ulinzi Stars on Sunday, which made him suffer a heavy 4-0 defeat to the Soldiers.
McKinstry has asked his charges to be patient as teams will be looking to nick points off the champions by setting up in a low block and forcing games to draws.
I thought our guys worked extremely hard today. If you were at the Ulinzi game, Shabana sat in a much higher block than Ulinzi. They sat closer to the halfway line,” .
“Ulinzi got behind them twice from crosses that led to goals and they also won set pieces and freekicks often because of the higher line from Shabana that allowed Ulinzi to get in behind.
“Today (Wednesday), Shabana were like two banks of four. They did not change formation. They went with three with the two wing backs to almost five at the back – a box midfield and a single striker -.
“At times, they had nine men behind the ball inside their own half, so you were finding Austin and other players having to drop into other spaces closer to the halfway line to get the ball.
“As Shabana tired in the second half, we found those spaces a little bit more. I think Bryson Wangai’s creativity opened up the pitch a little bit more.
“John Macharia who, by his own admission, did not have a good game last time came into the game today with a point to prove and linked things up well.”
The win for Gor Mahia now means they are second, level on points with Post Rangers on 19 points, but Rangers do have a game in hand and have an advantage of one goal in the goal difference metrics.
They will be seeking to show Kenya Police who the real ‘sirkal’ is as both sides will be facing each other off in the next match.