Jonathan McKinstry regrets tactical decision in Gor Mahia's draw against spirited Bidco

Gor Mahia head coach Johnathan McKinstry

FKFPL Jonathan McKinstry regrets tactical decision in Gor Mahia's draw against spirited Bidco

Mark Kinyanjui 21:00 - 30.10.2023

The K’Ogalo tactician has regretted not making a tactical decision in his side’s 0-0 draw with Bidco after beating sworn rivals AFC Leopards and Tusker in the games beforehand.

Gor Mahia head coach Johnathan McKinstry has regretted not making a tactical decision after his side were held to a 0-0 draw by Bidco United last Saturday.

Both sides huffed and puffed, asking each other questions in moments, but ultimately, they each had to settle for a point, which left McKinstry with some bitter taste of failing to get all three points in his mouth in the quest to catch up to surprise league leaders Posta Rangers.

McKinstry had made the decision to rest Rooney Onyango and Austin Odhiambo for Rodgers Ouma and Paul Ochuoga, seemingly with the midweek clash against a beleaguered Shabana in mind, but insists that he should have rotated his side more especially after experiencing the highs of beating fierce rivals AFC Leopards and Tusker in back to back games last Saturday.

“I think Rodgers Ouma can feel disappointed to be subbed out of the game because you have got to change things in a balanced way and that was the only way to get one or two players into the game,” he said.

“If anything, the regret is that we did not even change two or three more. The guys have been training well but you just know that after those emotional highs, maintaining it (would have been a problem).”

The Northern-Irishman is however insistent that he did not rotate with the midweek clash against Shabana in mind, and compared his side’s result to Harambee Stars’ underwhelming loss to South Sudan days after they had beaten Qatar in September.

“We werent’t looking at the Shabana game whatsoever,” McKinstry said, “This is a thing you see about Kenyan football,” he added.

“When there are big results and emotional highs, sometimes it is difficult for players to maintain that higher level.

“You even saw it at international level when Harambee Stars had a fantastic result against Qatar, then a few days later, it was almost like a different team playing against South Sudan, and we have obviously seen that as well.

“We have seen that in the past as well, we have obviously seen two good results against AFC and Tusker and we just felt we needed an injection of energy, and actually in Paul Ochuoga and Rodgers Ouma coming into the starting line up, I thought both of them did very well.

Gor Mahia will be hoping to beat a managerless FC Shabana on Wednesday at the Kasarani Stadium and hope that John Kamau’s Ragers slip in order to reclaim their lead at the top of the FKFPL table.

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