McKinstry vows to fight on as Amavubi woes continue

Beleaguered Amavubi Stars head coach Johnny McKinstry has insisted he will not quit despite a run of poor results since taking the job over seven months ago. McKinstry, 30, joined Amavubi in March, replacing Briton Stephen Constantine, but a record of three wins, two draws and 10 defeats has cast him in bad light among football critics and observers. However, the Northern Irish tactician is adamant that he remains the right man to get the team back on track heading into this year’s CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup as well as the 2016 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) finals tournament to be held in Rwanda from January 16 to February 7. “They say a quitter never wins and a winner never quits, I am a winner and am not going anywhere. For me tomorrow is another day and I have hard work to do before the next games,” the under-fire McKinstry told Times Sport in an exclusive interview. The Irishman says he is not worried about losing his job, but only focused on getting better results in the upcoming Senior Challenge Cup, which starts on Saturday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Place on CHAN team Following the Tuesday loss to Libya which eliminated Rwanda from the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, McKinstry added several new faces on the team that departed for Addis last night. Among the new faces is Yvan Senyage (Gicumbi), Fiston Munezero (Rayon Sport) and Yusuf Habimana (Mukura). “Performances in the CECAFA will be one of the biggest factors in selecting the CHAN squad; so players will know that over the next two weeks they have to perform or risk losing their place,” explained the former Sierra Leone coach. He noted that a number of players like Savio Dominic Nshuti, Hegman Ngomirakiza, Fiston Munezero, Celestin Ndayishimiye, and others will be given a good amount of game time to prove themselves. “This will in turn give not only motivation to those players; but also to the more established players to up their game in order to keep their place in the team going forward.” Since he joined Amavubi, McKinstry beat Ethiopia (3-1), Tanzania (1-0) in friendly games while he beat Somalia U23 (1-0) in qualifiers of Olympic Games. He drew goalless with Kenya in friendly game and Somalia U20 return leg. The 10 defeats have come against Zambia 2-0 in a friendly, Uganda U23 twice during the second round of Olympic Qualifiers (2-1 and 2-0), South Africa U23 2-0 (friendly), Ghana 1-0 in AFCON 2017 qualifiers, Gabon 1-0, Burkina 1-0 and Tunisia U23 1-0 (friendlies) as well as twice against Libya (1-0 and 3-1) in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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McKinstry vows to fight on as Amavubi woes continue