{"id":15743,"date":"2020-03-10T03:43:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T03:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/?p=15743"},"modified":"2020-03-10T03:43:25","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T03:43:25","slug":"polack-title-race-is-still-wide-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/polack-title-race-is-still-wide-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Polack: Title race is still wide open"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"http:\/\/gormahia.net\/images\/wave-derby.jpg\" width=\"695\" height=\"463\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Gor Mahia coach Steve Polack is happy with the derby win but he wants his players to understand that they are effectively only four points ahead of second placed Kakamega Homeboyz and 5 points ahead of Tusker. Which means the league is still highly competitive.<\/p>\n<p>Additional reporting from the Nation<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIt was tougher for us this time than it was in the first leg and it is evident they have improved. Credit goes to their coach, he is working hard to make the team better,\u201d Pollack said to the Nation<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Prior to the derby, Kimani had said the two teams were at par technically, but Gor Mahia was only better \u201cmentally\u201d, an aspect he insisted is crucial in modern football.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>And they matched Gor Mahia for the better part of the game save for their lack of sharpness upfront, with their lead striker Elvis Rupia missing a couple of seaters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>With the win, Gor Mahia are now seven points clear at the top of the table with just nine matches to go, but coach Steven Pollack says his lads should not rest on their laurels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cWe just won one game and I must admit it feels good to win the local derby twice, but the league title is not yet won, we have to regroup and work hard to win the remaining games,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>President Uhuru Kenyatta also attended his first ever Kenyan Premier League (KPL) game that was attended by a sizeable crowd estimated to be around 20,000. His presence excited the fans and he promised to support local football. Signs of good things to come?<\/p>\n<h3>Forget the title and focus on winning<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-md-8 no-padding\">\n<div class=\"main-story\">\n<div class=\"articlestory\">\n<div class=\"thestory\">\n<div class=\"summary\">\n<div class=\"side-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"therealdeal\">\n<div class=\"parallax-container\">\n<p>Gor Mahia head coach Steve Pollack has told his players not to concentrate on winning Kenyan Premier League title but instead focus on winning matches.<\/p>\n<p>Pollack guided his charges to a 1-0 win over long-term rivals AFC Leopards in Sunday\u2019s Mashemeji derby at Kasarani Stadium, a win that pushed them seven points clear at the summit of the KPL standings on 54.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <em>Citizen Digital<\/em> in a post-match reflection, Pollack hailed his charges for the good display but asked them to remain \u2018humble\u2019 and stay focused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very proud of my boys, they really did a wonderful job, we defeated them 4-1 in the first leg and now we have done the same in the return fixture, this is absolutely fantastic.<\/p>\n<p>AFC Leopards also played well, their defence was very solid and they were not allowing my strikers to penetrate their area easily until Onyango got the chance and utilized it well,\u201dhe observed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf late my players have been getting carried away by winning the title which is a positive idea but I want to urge them not to concentrate much on that but instead focus on winning the remaining matches,\u201d he said. \u201d I think it\u2019s too early to say we will win the title, many matches are left and what we are upto is to register three points in each one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/polack-title-race-is-still-wide-open\/\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground:  !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 100% !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gor Mahia coach Steve Polack is happy with the derby win but he wants his players to understand that they<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15743"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15745,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15743\/revisions\/15745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}