Despite beginning their 2019 Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) women’s Premier League with a 2-0 win over Sliders yesterday at City Park, United States International University (USIU)-A Spartans coach Willis Okeyo expressed displeasure with the wastefulness of his strikers and the performance of the entire team.
Okeyo directed his anger to his strikers for the 2-0 score-line which he labelled as meagre going by the numerous scoring chances the team created and the overall performance of his side which he termed as below par.
The tactician said yesterday’s lacklustre display in front of the goal was likely to spell doom in their ambition to dethrone reigning champions Telkom and vowed to focus more in sharpening the striking department in the training sessions.
He said: “The performance of the entire team was below par and the strikers wasted several clear cut chances. We would have won the match comfortably and with a big margin but we were poor up front. Going by the way I prepared the team in the preseason and the quality of the opponents, we deserved to win by a bigger margin.
You can’t achieve your target in the league if you can’t score goals in a convincing way. A lot needs to be done in our training especially in the striking department.”
The win catapulted the students to third with three points, a tally similar to that of second-placed Strathmore University’s Scorpions and one shy of league leaders Telkom who have played one match more.
Okeyo is, however, confident that they will close the one-point gap and stay at the top of the league. “We are now a point within the reach of Telkom and I believe if we will win in our match in hand, we will be able to go top and hopefully win the league. But before then, we have to work hard and correct the errors we made today.”
Maua William’s field goal gave Spartans the lead in the 18th minute before Sue Okech put the result beyond doubt in the 48th minute with a well-taken penalty stroke.
Earlier on at the same venue, Karate Axiom beat Mt. Kenya University 2-1 in the Nationwide League while Parkroad Badgers registered a similar result against Mombasa Sports Club in the men’s Super League. Kisumu Youngsters beat Mvita by a solitary goal in another Super League match.
