Two crucial wins for Mathare United against Vihiga United and AFC Leopards in their last three games have completely turned around a bleak outlook into good fortunes for the club. Just the other day, the slum boys had already been relegated even before being relegated. But isn’t it amazing what just two wins can do to a team that had been struggling to say the very least?By 20th June 2020, Mathare was languishing deep in the relegation territory, the club sitting in last position on the table on eight points after nineteen games, seven adrift the safety places.📈| League Standings after today’s Matches#BKPL pic.twitter.com/yFIk5OoqvV— Betking Kenya Premier League (@Officialfkfpl) June 19, 2021 But before that, a paltry two wins in the first fifteen games led to managerial changes being rung at the club, immediate former head coach Salim Ali shown the door after almost a three-year tenure and former Wazito head coach Frank Ouna given the difficult job of steering the historical club to safety.“I understand the task at hand and the only way to set things straight is to put points on the board. That is why I have been given the job. I know we can do it and improve on our situation because everything is already there in place,” the coach said on the club’s portals upon his unveiling.The head coach harshly came to understand the magnitude of the task at hand in his first five games, losing four and managing only one point from the available fifteen. What next then?The resurgence started after a lone Eugene Wethuli strike stunned title hopefuls AFC Leopards at Ruaraka Grounds last Wednesday pushing the club to just four points from safety. The club was however unable to maintain that much-needed consistency, having never won two consecutive games this season. They lost their next match 2-1 against Posta Rangers.First win for Frank Ouna as the Slum Boys edge Ingwe at Ruarakahttps://t.co/3CUHuQ1yOO— Mozzart Sport Kenya (@MozzartSportKe) June 23, 2021 But in their next game, the club conjured to pick a second win in the space of seven days, a late strike from captain Chris Oduor in the 90+1st minute stealing all three points from Vihiga United as the slum boys moved to 14 points, suddenly only one point away from safety.Head coach Ouna, while expressing his delight, was however quick to call on his team to maintain consistency if they are to beat the drop. The coach, along with his assistants, only focusing on taking a game at a time and on improving on the areas that have proved problematic to the team.“The win basically lifts our spirits but we must guard against a pitfall like the one we had after our win against Leopards because we lost our next game (against Posta). I always say that you are only as good as your next match. Vihiga is gone and the most important match that we are looking forward to is the next game against Kakamega Homeboyz,”“I am not looking at ten matches all at once but rather taking it a game at a time with the focus being on the next match to come. I need to analyze the game, identify the mistakes, analyze how Homeboyz play and how we can be able to hurt them. I have two very good assistants working with me, George Midenyo working on striking and Ezekiel Akwana on defending. Scoring and defending is a footballing problem and a headache to every coach but it is coachable on the training ground and something we will keep working on until we get it right,” the coach told Mozzart Sport.With the wind in their sails and a chance to move out of the relegation places for the first time this season, Mathare prepare to take on Kakamega Homeboyz in the first of the remaining ten games in their next fixture. Will they just pull the rabbit out of the hat and beat the drop?
