Gor Mahia head coach Charles Akonnor has revealed how bringing in a psychologist helped the team regain confidence following a difficult pre-season campaign that culminated in their disappointing exit from the CAF Champions League.
The Ghanaian tactician admitted that K’Ogalo needed a different voice to help the players overcome a challenging period and return to winning ways after a series of disappointing results threatened to derail their preparations for the 2026/27 season.
Gor Mahia had enjoyed an impressive run at the CECAFA Kagame Cup, where they reached the final before losing to Rwanda’s Rayon Sports. However, the momentum from that campaign did not translate into positive results during the subsequent pre-season period.
The record Kenyan champions struggled in several friendly matches before losing the FKF Super Cup to Tusker FC. Their difficulties continued in the CAF Champions League, where Egyptian giants Pyramids FC eliminated them following a heavy aggregate defeat.
The results presented Akonnor and his technical bench with the task of rebuilding the squad’s confidence ahead of their SportPesa League title defence.
Speaking after Gor Mahia began their 2026/27 league campaign with an entertaining 4-2 victory over Murang’a SEAL at Nyayo National Stadium, Akonnor disclosed that the club had enlisted the services of a psychologist to help the players deal with the difficult period.
“We had to bring in a psychologist to help the team, to psych them up. They needed to hear a different voice, and it has helped,” Akonnor said.
The coach expressed hope that the victory would provide a foundation for further improvement, while acknowledging that his team still had areas to address despite their attacking display.
Gor Mahia found the net four times through Alpha Onyango, who converted a brilliant free-kick, Sharrif Musa, who scored twice, and Jackson Dwang’, whose spectacular strike added to the champions’ tally.
Murang’a SEAL, however, refused to go down without a fight, with Josphat Lopaga scoring a brace to punish some defensive lapses by the hosts.
Akonnor admitted that conceding twice was not ideal but maintained that the positives from the performance offered encouragement as the team looks to build momentum in the new campaign.
“We hope we continue from there and build on how we have performed today. We have scored four goals, and that is very positive. Yes, we conceded unnecessary goals, but it is okay; we build on it,” he added.
The former Black Stars assistant coach also praised his technical team for remaining composed despite the turbulence that surrounded the club during the pre-season period.
According to Akonnor, the priority was to prepare the players mentally and physically for their opening league assignment rather than allow previous disappointments to weigh them down.
“I am happy that through all the preparations and all the turbulence, the technical team, led by myself, remained calm. What was necessary was how to get these boys ready to play a very good match,” he said.
“I think today we have seen a good performance that can improve, a performance that can give us a lot of encouragement to build on.”
ALSO READ:Gor Mahia begin SportPesa League title defence with convincing win over Murang’a SEAL
The victory was an important response from the defending champions, who needed a positive start after their struggles in the build-up to the new season. The four goals also demonstrated their attacking potential, although tightening their defence will remain a key priority for Akonnor.
Gor Mahia moved to the top of the SportPesa League standings following the win, which was the opening fixture of the 2026/27 campaign for both sides.
With a long season ahead, Akonnor will be hoping that the psychological support, combined with improved performances on the pitch, helps Gor Mahia maintain consistency as they pursue another league title.
Related
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
