Gor Mahia head coach Dylan Kerr celebrates with his assistant coach Zedekiah Otieno (left) and Team manager Jolawi Obondo (right) after winning the SportPesa Super Cup on June 10, 2018 at the Afraha Stadium in Nakuru. PHOTO/Timothy Olobulu
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 10- Sit down, be humble; Those might not be the words that Gor Mahia head coach uttered after beating his former employers Simba SC to the SportPesa Super Cup title on Sunday in Nakuru, but had he spoken otherwise, he wouldn’t have fallen far off those lines.
Kerr beamed with ecstasy getting victory over the side that sacked him barely seven months in, and right in front of the very same club officials who according to him thought he wasn’t good enough.
Right after Jacques Tuyisenge drove the final nail on Simba’s coffin with the second goal, Kerr leaped in joy into the arms of his assistant Zedekiah Otieno smiling ear to ear, his face beaming with glee and shouting for joy.
No sooner had he come down from his assistant’s arms than he turned to the VIP dias, punching both arms in the air and screaming at the Simba officials led by Hajji Manara who he had earlier accused of ‘giving Singida United players high fives’ after their semi-final match against Gor.
Gor Mahia head coach Dylan Kerr flushes his tyrademark thumbs up before their SportPesa Super Cup final against Tanzania’s Simba on June 10, 2018 at the Afraha Stadium in Nakuru. PHOTO/Timothy Olobulu
“It’s all gone now. They told me I wasn’t good enough and today I have proved to them that I am good enough. The team I had in 2015 at Simba was fantastic and I was told I am not good enough. They think this team they have now is good enough. Well, they need to look at themselves in the mirror,” an ecstatic Kerr said after the match.
Pre-match, Kerr had said he had nothing to prove to Simba but nonetheless, it was immeasurable joy for the British tactician.
He went on to further condemn the Simba leadership having made a decision to sack French coach Pierre Lechantre.
“They have sacked the coach that won them the league and that is outrageous,” Kerr said.
Lechantre only took charge of the team for their first game against Kariobangi Sharks but wasn’t on the bench in their win over Kakamega Homeboyz and the final against Gor. It was his assistant Massoud Djuma who was in charge of both ties.
Gor Mahia head coach Dylan Kerr shares a joke with Simba SC stand-in coach Djuma Massoud before their SportPesa Super Cup final on June 10, 2018 at the Afraha Stadium in Nakuru. PHOTO/Timothy Olobulu
Capital Sport has learnt that Lechantre’s contract at the club ends in a week’s time and his comments in praise of Gor Mahia after winning their first match might have irked the Simba management who asked him to step aside.
Meanwhile, it meant the world to Kerr getting victory over Simba, a clinical 2-0 performance at a fully packed stadium and his players giving their all on the pitch.
“Those players were brilliant. They worked their socks off and they ran miles for this victory,” Kerr later told Capital Sport.
Under the drenching Nakuru evening rain, Kerr took a lap of honor around the entire pitch, his t-shirt and pair of shorts dripping with water giving the fans a round of applause as they in turn responded shouting ‘Igweeeee, Igweeee’.
Gor Mahia head coach Dylan Kerr joins his players in celebration after winning the SportPesa Super Cup title against Tanzania’s Simba SC on June 10, 2018 at the Afraha Stadium in Nakuru. PHOTO/Timothy Olobulu
“It feels amazing to win this title because the players did what we wanted them to do which was go there, play football, enjoy and win that airline ticket. They did that and did it in a brilliant way. It means so much to them to get a chance to go to Everton and play at Goodison Park,” the tactician added.
The tactician believes the Super Cup conquest will inject more confidence ahead of their remaining campaigns especially in the CAF Confederations Cup.
Gor Mahia are also looking to retain their Kenyan Premier League crown as well as battle for honors in the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Shield and the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup.
“We are going to get better and get stronger. We are becoming a team now and we have to keep going. These boys are brilliant and they have to believe themselves. Now they need to go to Goodison and show that they are a good team,” added the tactician.
