Gor Mahia head coach Jonathan McKinstry is confident of beating Kenyan Premier League rivals, Kakamega Homeboyz in the FKF Charity Shield Cup scheduled for this Saturday.
The two top-flight behemoths lock horns at the Moi Stadium, Kasarani at 3 pm and McKinistry reckons they possess the mojo to claim the opponent's scalp.
McKinstry said continuity will be their mainstay in the crunch pre-season tie as he seeks to field most of the players that fired the side to their 20th KPL title last season.
"The vast majority of the players that featured for us and delivered the title last season are still around and I can, therefore, rightly say our squad is still intact," McKninistry said.
"We played against Homeboyz at least three times in the concluded season both in the league and the cup competitions. They didn't prove to be much of a bother to us except when they were eliminated from the FKF Cup. We can contain them on Saturday," McKnistry said.
The Irish tactician said they will be using the match to gauge their readiness for the new season that is set to kick off on August 26.
"The season is almost beginning again and we hope to learn a lot from the match especially considering we shall be up against a very worthy opponent."
Homeboyz head into the match straight from a build-up match in Kampala, where they crashed 2-0 to Uganda Premier League giants KCCA at the MTN Omondi Stadium last week.
Homeboyz head coach Patrick Odhiambo confirmed that they had shelved a trip to Tanzania, where they were scheduled to flex muscles with Azam in a friendly encounter.
“We had planned a trip to Tanzania to help us with further preparations for both the KPL and our Caf Confederations Cup campaign. However, we felt we were short of time," Odhiambo said.
"Meeting Gor Mahia will be important to us. Remember this is a team that has a lot of experience playing on the international stage. We believe they will pose the kind of challenge we are likely to encounter against our foreign opponents," he added.
The two sides met thrice in the past season with Homeboyz proving the better side after beating Gor twice.
Their last encounter was during the FKF Cup where Homeboyz edged Gor 1-0 in the round of sixteen.
Gor and Homeboyz booked berths in the Shield Cup finals after clinching the KPL and FKF Cup titles in that order.
){kind=link}
