Mathare United coach John Kamau has called for calm after his team’s 4-0 thrashing by AFC Leopards in the opening FKF Premier League match of the season, played at Dandora Stadium on Sunday.Goals from Arthur Gitego, Boniface Munyendo, Victor Omune, and Sydney Lokale handed the Slum Boys a rude awakening on their return to the top tier after a season in the National Super League. Most of the goals were due to defensive mistakes by the hosts.##NAJAVA_MECA_8290453##The result put Leopards at the top of the league and painted a picture of total dominance from Leopards, but in reality, Mathare were not entirely poor. Ingwe keeper Levis Opiyo had to make a couple of decent saves to register his first clean sheet of the campaign.In his post-match comments, the former Posta Rangers coach remained steadfast, noting that they shot themselves in the foot for three of the goals due to quick transitions.”4-0 is not a reflection of what we expected, but all in all, it is the first game. Three of the four goals came from our own mistakes. It was an issue of poor transition, and we were not able to defend it,” he stated.He chose to focus on what he termed as positives, such as his team building well from the back, although he felt they should have done better with the chances created.”But I am happy with the way we were building from the back. What needs to be noted is that we wasted a lot of scoring opportunities, and with that in mind, I believe that we can do better than we did today,” he added.“The urge to win was there. If you look at the goals conceded, they all came from transitions and counter-attacks deep in the opponent’s half. With that in mind, we are going to work on our performance in the final third and the scoring part, ensuring that we have patience and find the right time to penetrate.”STARS ABROAD: Joseph Okumu features against Marseille as Collins Sichenje clocks 90 in SerbiaRegarding whether the defeat will have far-reaching mental ramifications for the team, the coach downplayed the issue, stating that being just the opening game, the consequences will not be significant while promising to boost the players’ morale.“We are going to work on the mental aspect. It is just the first game of the season, and I don’t think it will damage what we planned for this season. There will be times we win and times we lose,” he said.“There is no need to panic. It is not the time. I have a lot of confidence in the players I have. I cannot go into panic mode because we lost 4-0. At the end of the season, we will finish in a respectable position. It is a process, and I have been in this kind of situation many times before.Next for Mathare is an away game against Kakamega Homeboyz who suffered a 3-0 loss to Mara Sugar on Sunday.Lessons learned from opening weekend of FKF Premier League
