‘Wiser’ Gor Mahia aim for continental glory

What you need to know:

  • The league champions will start their African Champions League campaign against Equatorial Guinea’s Leones Vegetarinos in a preliminary round, first leg clash at the Kenyatta stadium in Machakos on Saturday.

Gor Mahia’s chief executive Lordvick Aduda on Wednesday said the club has adopted a different approach in search of continental success this year after painful recent failures.

The league champions will start their African Champions League campaign against Equatorial Guinea’s Leones Vegetarinos in a preliminary round, first leg clash at the Kenyatta stadium in Machakos on Saturday.

Aduda told Nation Sport: “There are no excuses this time round because things have been done differently.”

“For instance, we began our preps early enough and the players underwent a high altitude training. We have also worked very hard and assembled a quality team.”

Despite consistently dominating on the local front for the better part of this decade, K’Ogalo have suffered early exits on the continent over that period, with the likes of CNaPS (Madagascar), Rwanda’s Patriotic Army, Mozambique’s Ferroviarao de Maputo and Tunisia’s Esperance knocking the stuffing out of the Kenyan side in successive years.

Wiser now, the club have set coach Dylan Kerr the target of making it to the money spinning group stage of the tournament.

Showing ambition Gor Mahia made active forays in the just concluded transfer market ensnaring experienced playmaker Humphrey Mieno for Tusker and Ivorian hotshot Ephrem Guikan.

Aduda has meanwhile advised the fans to turn up early for the game, warning that the club stewards will be closing all the gates 30 minutes to the game’s 3pm kick off as per the Caf rules.