Mathare United’s first leg performance so far reflects nothing short of last season’s woes, similar to the present albeit with a few twists. Sitting second from bottom on the 18-team Kenyan Premier League table standings,the slumboys have only mastered three wins, two of them coming back to back- and coincidentally after ringing a few changes in the technical bench and the playing unit. Despite losing their Saturday 18th contest against defending champions Tusker, striker Daniel Okoth believes the team has peaked in performance.‘’We are a relatively new team, most players left at the end of last season when we knew we had been relegated and only a handful stayed. I believe this should explain why we started on the wrong foot, the gelling within the team wasn’t ripe, but now we have adjusted well and picking up points,’’ the former SoNy Sugar man says.##NAJAVA_MECA_7031994##Okoth, so far on three goals and three assists for the season, scored in their back to back victories against Vihiga Bullets and Kariobangi Sharks. Earlier on on the season, he had found the back of the net in their 3-1 dismissal of Bidco United. He has scored in all of their victories and he intends to continue in the same trajectory when the second leg begins.‘’Confidence has resurfaced among my teammates who are very young and new in the league. Going by the way were are playing now, I can see more wins ahead and a possible top ten finish when the season closes.” Okoth says. The second leg will be great if we keep up the pace and if you look at our position on the log, survival is the top priority so that from there, we can restrategize and take United back to its glory days,’’ he adds.Mathare lost 2-1 to Tusker on Saturday, a result that keeps them at ten points from 14 matches, and for a team that has conceded the most number of goals this season, as a forward Okoth knows his defence has to improve if at all the forwards’ goals will mean anything going forward. ‘’Getting goals is one thing and preventing them is another, if we can just work as a team to keep opponents at bay then winning will be a lot easier because we have proven that we can actually get the goals,’’ he concludes.United are tied with Wazito on points- the latter stays ahead on superior goal difference. The two face off next on Saturday 25th February as the first leg wraps up.
