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Steven Crawford

Northern Ireland coach on verge of record Kenyan Premier League title win

Johnny McKinstry is closing in on a record Kenyan Premier League title win with his club Gor Mahia.

The Lisburn man, who has coached in USA, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Lithuania, Bangladesh and Uganda, made the switch to the Kenyan giants last July.

They are one of the most storied clubs in Africa with 19 league titles to their name but over the last two seasons they have dropped below their usual high standards finishing 8th and 3rd respectively.

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Under McKinstry though they find themselves two games away from a record 20th league crown after they moved to the top of the table on Sunday following their 2-0 over Ulinzi Stars.

They have a two-point cushion over Tusker at the summit ahead of their final games against Kakamega Homeboyz and City Stars, but McKinstry isn't taking anything for granted just yet.

"It's a really good day for us, we said everyone was getting on top of us when we had a little bad run there - we didn't win in three games," he said.

"People were declaring our rivals champions, but we knew this league was so difficult, we expected our rivals would trip up again.

"People will want to walk away from the stadium here and will want to declare us champions and that's not true either.

"There's two big games to come up for both teams. We're back on top which is where we wanted to be.

"But we also know that in Homeboyz and in City Stars these are teams who can cause you problems.

"Homeboyz are preparing for the Cup final so will probably play their full team in the penultimate game against us and rest players for the last game."

McKinstry was full of praise for his players as they showed their quality again after a challenging run.

"As I've said before this is a young team and results won't always go our way but we're trying to build something," he said.

"They are maturing and developing and we're supporting them in that. It's tough when you play for Gor and you want to develop because you're always under pressure.

"There were parts of that game that were beautiful, and you're looking around thinking that you don't know if you've seen better football played not just in Kenya this year."

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