Kenya international Joseph Okumu was left a disappointed man after KAA Gent suffered a 2-1 defeat against Sint-Truidense VV in their opening match of the Belgian Pro League season on Sunday.
The towering Harambee Star joined the Belgian outfit from Sweden side IF Elfsborg but he was yet to feature for the team despite their involvement in the Europa Conference League last Thursday.
But on Sunday, Okumu was handed his debut and despite Gent taking an early lead courtesy of Andreas Hanche-Olsen in the second minute, they were beaten in the away fixture as goals from Ilombe Mboyo in the 12th minute and Christian Bruls in the 67th minute lifted the home side to an opening win.
Okumu, who featured for the entire 90 minutes, has admitted it was not the kind of debut he was looking for but said the team will strive to do better in their next assignment.
“A debut that I would have liked to see ended differently," Okumu told the club’s official website.
“We started well but made mistakes too easily when we conceded the first goal. In the second half, we took the game to our side, but we were unable to reverse that end result.
“What can you conclude then? It was a disappointing game, but we should not magnify this result. It is only matchday 1 and crazy things often happen in opening games. This doesn't have to be a sign of our season; it's much too early for that. Let us show what we stand for in the next games.”
On whether he had difficulties playing in artificial grass, Okumu said: “I'm not going to put it on the field if that's what you mean. In Sweden, we mostly played on artificial grass, so that's just me. I still have to get used to the pace of the game, but competitions are the best school for that.”
On his part, goal scorer Hanche-Olsen believes they deserved to get a penalty in the fixture after Caufriez's handball in the closing stages was not penalised.
“I thought that was a penalty”, Hanche-Olsen told the same portal.
“Bayo headed and the ball clearly landed on Caufriez's hand. But we can't change it anymore so from now on we have to focus on the next game. Today [Sunday] - compared to Thursday against Valerenga - we were just not dominant enough.
“But I would rather have won. We knew of course that today was not going to be easy, although we had started well. But that goal was far too easy.
“We created some chances in the second half, but it wasn't good enough. This was indeed not an achievement you should expect from us. But we shouldn't panic either. We still have plenty of games to put this right.”
Gent will next face K Beerschot VA at Ghelamco Arena on Sunday.
