Oktay: Zamalek win presents new start for Gor Mahia

Gor Mahia coach Hassan Oktay says they were motivated to silence critics who had written them off against Egyptian giants Zamalek in the opening Caf Confederation Cup group “D” game at Kasarani stadium on Sunday.

Prior to the clash, the White Knights were clear favourites posing a better head-to-head record.

The Turkish-Cypriot coach, who has been under pressure for the team's recent skid, was further criticised for leaving out centre backs Harun Shakava and Joash Onyango out of his first eleven despite the duo’s availability having returned from suspension.

Joachim Oluoch and Charles Momanyi, who started against New Stars de Douala of Cameroon in the playoff, partnered at the back with Kenneth Muguna playing alongside Lawrence Juma in the midfield following the suspension of Ernest Wendo.

“Every single Gor Mahia player needs to be ready, Joachim and Charles did well against New Stars of Cameroon and did well again,” claimed Oktay.

“To me it wasn’t a risk, we’ve been playing fantastic football, creating many chances but lacked putting the ball behind the net, this was a fair result and it’s a good start for us that eases pressure from the players created by the press,

“I told the players what the media was asking me every time about our bad performance, it was a good motivation coming into this fixture,” he added.

He attributed the emphatic win against the five-time Caf Champions League winners to good research on the opponents.

“I was expecting to win because we did a good homework, we watched Zamalek against Pyramids and I watched them against two other teams, we knew the way they play and we trained exactly on their weaknesses,

“I was very comfortable that as a team we could get something,” he concluded.

Gor visit Vihiga United in a league match on Wednesday and host rivals AFC Leopards on Saturday before travelling to Angola for the second round against Petro Atletico, who fell 2-1 to Hussein Dey of Algeria in another group "D" encounter.