Gor Mahia defeat to Sofapaka was ‘wake-up call' – Polack

BetOdds KPL Sofapaka v Gor Mahia Sofapaka Gor Mahia Western Stima

The British coach reveals to Goal why losing against Batoto ba Mungu is a warning to his charges as they fight to retain the title

Gor Mahia coach Steven Polack has revealed it was important for the team to lose against Sofapaka so the players can understand the intensity of the Kenyan Premier League (KPL).

The Kenyan champions suffered their third defeat of the season after going down 3-1 to Batoto ba Mungu in a match played at Narok Stadium on Sunday.

The British coach has now told Goal the defeat should serve as a warning to his charges they must treat every game with a lot of respect and also learn to put away the many chances they create in a single match.

“It was a big disappointment to lose against [Sofapaka], I understand people, in the club especially the fans are disappointed but you know sometimes these things do happen,” Polack told Goal on Tuesday.

“Sometimes you need a wake-up call because you know if you don’t lose you don’t learn, I am not saying I like losing games but it is a wake-up call, a learning call and that is the most important thing.

“Sometimes we have to look at everything from preparations before the game, sometimes can be okay and sometimes they cannot be 100 percent.

“I don’t blame the result on that but it is the mental concern as well and like I said before it was one of those games I think even if we could play for the whole day, in fact, we could not get any more goals.”

Polack, who admitted the defeat against Sofapaka was one of the worst in his entire career, has also revealed they conceded easy goals to lose in the tie.

“We had several chances to win the game but we did not use them and the goals we gave away were too easy, the first two goals were too easy to concede but the third one, no goalkeeper is going to save that,” Polack continued.

“I looked at the game again and picked a lot of mistakes from my players and we have already talked about it again and hopefully we can correct the same and win our next match.

“You cannot just turn up to win a game without even working on your work rate, without even fighting for every ball, you cannot win a game like that, you must show up and do your best, give your all and some of those characters were truly missing against [Sofapaka].”

On whether the defeat could affect their race for a fourth consecutive title. Polack told Goal: “No…I don’t think so, the league is a marathon and in football, you win, lose or draw and that is the way it was, we lost but the most important thing now is how are we going to react in the next game, and in our training today [Tuesday] we looked at the game and asked ourselves why did we lose?

“We were training and did a good warm-up, good passing skills and then we finished with shooting skills for the last 20 and 25 minutes at the end of training and hopefully they have their shooting boots ready for Wednesday and I believe they will have them back.”

Gor Mahia will next face Western Stima in one of their two matches in hand and a win will see them open a six-point gap at the summit of the 17-team league table.

2020-02-11 10:00:03

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