‘In football you count what you have’ – Shikanda after AFC Leopards win

AFC Leopards chairman Dan Shikanda has called for consistency of results if they are to win the FKF Premier League title for the first time in 22 years.

Ingwe last won the league title in 1998 and since then they have struggled to reclaim it back, with their rivals Gor Mahia dominating the scene, where they have now won it four times in a row.

Before the 2020-21 campaign kicked-off, Shikanda promised club fans he was building a team ready to compete and end their league drought. Now speaking to Goal after they defeated Tusker 2-1 in the opener, the club boss believes the work to reclaim the title has just started.

“The team is looking good and it was good to start with a win and now we have to take it a game at a time, you know in football you count what you have,” Shikanda told Goal on Wednesday.

“So it will be too early to start saying we have won the league title [just because of beating Tusker] or say we have been relegated, we count what we have, and if you ask me, we are still in the relegation zone with the three points we picked from the first match, so what we have to do is make sure we win our matches.

“We need to have a consistent run of winning matches, and then we can start talking about the other issues [like if we are winning the title], much later, let the team win their matches first.”

During the match played at Kasarani Stadium, Tusker took a deserved lead through David Majak but goals from captain Robinson Kamura and striker Elvis Rupia, who converted from the penalty spot, were enough to hand Ingwe maximum points.

The towering Majak grabbed the first goal of the new campaign, after he took advantage of a misunderstanding between the AFC Leopards defenders, to stab home from close range beating keeper Jeff Oyemba in Ingwe's goal.

However, the lead was short-lived as Ingwe drew level courtesy of captain Kamura, who drilled home a low foot effort before Rupia made sure they left the pitch with maximum points after sending the Tusker keeper the wrong way from the penalty spot.

AFC Leopards will next take on promoted side Bidco United on Sunday.