McKINSTRY CHARGED TO SECURE AFCON QUALIFICATION

Sports Minister Bakary Badjie has said one of the key elements in the newly extended two- year contract of Coach Jonathan McKinstry is to secure qualification to the 2027 Afcon.

Mr Badjie confirmed this at the recent Mansa Kunda on Friday, where he also revealed that the coach got an extension following a positive recommendation by his direct supervisors the Gambia football Federation.

“Though his statistics could be better comparatively, we as government believe that he is building a new team and therefore he needs some time. But surely securing qualification is definitely part of his deal,” Minister Badjie said.

The Northern Ireland technician has injected a new philosophy in the national team characterised by attacking football that made The Scorpions a delight to watch.

Though a break from the past when the team was notorious for focusing more on defensive play, the coach’s new system still needs perfecting especially in maintaining and consolidating gains over opponents during matches.

He however enjoys the luxury of a large number of players spread across the globe to select from. The Gambia qualified to Afcon twice in a row and even reached the quarter finals on the first occasion. The country howver missed the last one, a fate largely blamed on the lack of home matches in the wake of the Independence Stadium debacle. With the facility now expected to host home matches, many are hopeful that the work towards another Afcon could be a lot less hard. However The Gambia’s qualifying group contains former champions, Ivory Coast and Ghana, with minnows Somalia completing the list.