NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 29 – Mathare United head coach Francis Kimanzi has ruled out his side’s strength to vie for the Kenyan Premier League title this season, but he believes he is building a side that will challenge for top honors in the near future.
Mathare started the season strong but have faded away in the second half of the campaign, something that Kimanzi has attributed to lack of proper balance in his squad.
“To win the title you have to be realistic. You need a team with quality and balance. In my team now I have the quality but I have still not managed to get a balanced team like I would want, but with time I will,” Kimanzi told Capital Sport.
He added; “You have to build something to be successful. We don’t want to win it by luck. We have to build something and we have to look better than every other team in all departments. Like I always said, we are another force in the league and you can see we are better than even the teams with more points than us.”
Kimanzi has had a consistent side over the last two seasons and has only been making minor twitches and he believes if kept together, this squad can be a title winning outfit just like the one he featured in as a player in the late 1990’s when Mathare won their only league title.
With eight games remaining on their end, Mathare are fifth in the standings with 40 points, a massive 18 behind leaders Gor Mahia and the only way they can hunt for the title is if Gor lose six games and they win all their remaining ties.
The Slum Boys could have made the difference smaller on Sunday but they played to a 2-2 draw with Mathare United in Machakos.
Kimanzi was incensed with the result, but not because his players played badly but due to what he termed as injustices from the referee who he claimed denied them two clear penalties.
“If we had a better official we would have controlled the game and benefited from our hard work. We always play good football and the players showed good behavior on and off the ball. But good football must be governed with good rules. I don’t know whether the ref omitted some rules when it came to our side because I thought we should have had two or three penalties,” the tactician offered.
Mathare will look to climb back to the top three on May Day when they tackle relegation fighting Zoo Kericho at the Kasarani Stadium.
Victory here will push them well within reach of the top three, a position that Kimanzi believes they can finish in.
