Lakers women's hockey team players have been told to take it easy despite losing to the United States International University (USIU) Spartans 1-0 in the season opener on Sunday.
It was a tepid performance from Lakers, who were playing in their own backyard but failed to capitalise on the home advantage.
"It wasn't the best of results from the team but we shouldn't panic considering this is our opening match. I know the girls can perform better than that and there's a need for urgent improvement," coach Austin Tuju said.
Tuju guided the Kisumu-based side to a fourth-place finish in their first season in 2019.
The former Armed Forces player added: "Every failure has an answer. We just need to be positive and come up stronger next time. It's all about conversion. We created so many chances but the ball could not just go in. Attackers need to be spot-on when chances are presented to them."
He said currently, they are having financial challenges that are impacting the team negatively.
He, however, noted that their biggest challenge is training together as a team because the players are scattered on different campuses in Western Kenya.
"We can't train together for long and it's hard to find the rhythm of play. 75 percent of the athletes are back in college and train differently. We only call them for matches hence we face the coordination challenges during matches," he said.
He said it is sad that they had 15 short corners but couldn't score any.
Tuju called on corporates to save the club from the current financial quagmire and described them as the future of hockey.
"We are just two years in the league but very competitive. Lakers are a team to reckon with and worth investment from corporates because this is a long-term project."
