Prowling Leopards on right track, but must address team spirit

Our noisy neighbours have been all over town the last one week savouring their laboured victory in last weekend’s derby.

Granted, the team in green thoroughly deserved their win, what with an unusually subdued AFC Leopards putting up perhaps one of the worst ever performances in the club’s otherwise rich history.

No single shot on target for an entire half can never be a display befitting a club of Ingwe’s stature.

Regrettably, this was the case that afternoon. Whether it was stage fright being the first derby for majority of our players or just a bad day in office should not bother the Ingwe nation much.

What should bother us is how fast the boys pick the pieces and fight another day. I would have been thrilled if our boys won the next match against the cane-cutters of Awendo last Wednesday but then a last minute goal did us in.

Victory on that day would have demonstrated the mental strength that has characterized successive Ingwe generations, from the days of the late Hezekiah Ang’ana, succeeded by Jonathan Niva’s generation down to the eighties’ celebrated class of J.J Masiga, Wilberforce Mulamba, Josephat Murila and Mahmoud Abbas as well as the recent generations of Idd Abubakar and Tony Lwanga, and Simon Mulama and Austin Makacha who succeeded them.

Through the years, Ingwe, unlike our noisy neighbours in green, has never been a side to go down without a fight.

From the few matches I have watched, the quality of the current team is not in doubt. A well balanced team, teeming with immensely gifted youthful players with a sprinkling of experience in key positions.

The quality of coaching too is not in question; Stewart Hall’s credentials speak for themselves as our noisy neighbours in green will easily attest to.

What may be in doubt is the team spirit and I speak from a point of insider information.

It is not often that you see the players, the technical bench and the club executive putting in some hours after a match to reminisce over some sloppy performance.

Yet it happened after the Sony match last Wednesday with the conduct of some two players put under serious scrutiny.

That a player would rather selfishly attempt to shoot from a tight position instead of squaring a pass to a perfectly positioned teammate should never be condoned.

Not once, not twice but on at least five occasions, the two players could not pass the ball to each other on that day. I won’t name names but lack of team spirit is a matter the technical bench should address as a matter of urgency.

I count on Hall to deal with this minor problem and return the boys to winning ways. K’Ogalo must know that they can run but they will never hide.

We are coming for you and your ilk sooner than later.