Gor Mahia head coach Charles Akonnor has declared that the record champions are treating every remaining fixture like a final as they look to pull away at the top of the Sportpesa League table.
Speaking ahead of their highly anticipated rescheduled encounter against Tusker FC at the Wang’uru Stadium on Tuesday, Akonnor dismissed the threat of chasing rivals as the season approaches its tail end.
With K’Ogalo currently sitting at the summit, Akonnor admitted the technical bench is keeping a close watch on their traditional rivals, AFC Leopards, who are lurking in the chasing pack.
“Well, this is how we see it, we are on top of the league. We have a match at hand, we believe we will win. When we win, we have five points clear and then we look forward to the coming matches,” Akonnor stated.
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Gor Mahia head coach Akonnor confident of beating Tusker on Tuesday
Addressing the threat from the Ingwe camp, who are just two points shy of the league leaders tally, the Ex Ghanaian International maintained composure objectively brushing away potential dropping of points.
“We know that AFC Leopards is doing a lot of things in their power to overtake us, but that will be a difficult one. We will not allow that because we’ve worked so hard to get here. We’ve not lost a game this year and the confidence of these boys, the way they process things, has been good. We are very confident, but at the same time aware, having a corner eye to see what is going on at your back.”
A major talking point ahead of the trip to Kirinyaga has been the state of the playing surface at Wang’uru Stadium. Known for a philosophy of fluid, passing football, Akonnor expressed frustration at the venue selection but insisted his team is tactically flexible enough to grind out a result.
“We are a team that likes to play. We want a better field to play. How we were taken there, I don’t know,it’s very, very strange. But we’ll manage it and we’ll get the necessary results. I’m confident about that,” he remarked.
The former Black Stars captain pointed to previous matches where the team successfully altered their DNA to suit difficult terrains.
“Even in the first round, we were able to go to Dandora. We managed it; we changed the style of play. We went to Shabana, the field was also not too good, we changed our style of play and we got the necessary result. We’ll do that with this. We have a plan on how to approach this game, we will do it effectively.”
A win for Gor will see them reopen the gap at the top with second-placed AFC Leopards to five points as they look to complete a double over the brewers and march to another league title.