Coach Onyango slams complacent Sliders

Sliders Hockey Club head coach Linet Onyango slammed her team for complacency following a disappointing display in their 1-1 draw with JKUAT women on Saturday.

Sliders won five penalty corners in the second half alone but made none count and with it squandered the chance to pick up maximum points as they remained stuck in the bottom half of the Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) league.

Onyango summed up her season as a ‘nightmare’ leading the Sliders, whom she said is full of world class talent but have refused to work collectively as a team because they tend to skip training.

“We deserved better results, we had ten clear chances and wasted several short corners in front of our opponents goal and only managed to score one! It should not be like this,” Onyango charged.

Dia Khimasia fired in for Sliders in the 17th minute after a magnificent run from the left, beating the last defender to shoot past JKUAT goalie.

Sliders maintained the lead until 49th minute when their defence was beaten by JKUAT’s Faith Mdogo whose close range short went in unblocked to cancel Khimisa’s goal.

Sliders boss admitted that this season’s poor performance is calling for major changes in the team.

“Most of my players leave work at 5.00 pm and they dont have time for training, we need to make numerous changes ahead of the next season. I have identified six talented young girl and we are having talks with them,” Onyango highlighted.

Sliders have one match to close the season against bankers Chase Amira and they have registered only two wins, two draws and losing seven times in the entire campaign compared to 2017 season where they finished fifth with 28 points from eight wins, four draws and losing eight.

Following today’s draw, Sliders stands at position five sharing eight points with JKUAT but they have a better goal difference of (-11) JKUAT with (-18).

Mary Njoki, the students captain, was satisfied with one point, praising her mates for the hard earned point.

“We did not want to lose in our last match of the season. The season have been tough and we need to work on our striking strength come next season,” Njoki told Citizen Digital.

According to her, JKUAT need to be more aggressive and ruthless in front of the goal if the really want to match up with the title contender’s game.

The women league title is a closed deal with hockey queens Telkom Kenya winning the 2018 title with one match left.

The telecommunication giants will end the season with meaningless match against their rivals, Strathmore University on December 9.