The power of fans: Tusker urged on to win over KRA in Kinoru Stadium, Meru

By GILBERT WANDERA

By moving their home matches to Meru’s Kinoru Stadium, former Kenyan Premier League (KPL) champions Tusker were always taking a huge gamble.

Yet, it is a gamble that paid off with huge dividends given the high number of fans who turned up to watch the team demolish Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) 3-1 on Sunday.

Tusker were following in the footsteps of other former KPL champions Sofapaka and Mathare United who at the beginning  of this  season moved  their home matches to Machakos Municipal Stadium in a bid to build their own fan base.

While Sofapaka and United have played longer at Machakos Municipal Stadium, they are yet to galvanise fans around them and hardly draw a big crowd to watch their matches.

On Sunday, more than 5,000 fans turned to watch Tusker play at their new home ground  and for the first time in a long time, the brewers had a huge crowd rooting for them and they might just as well have  joined the league of the country’s top community clubs AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia.

The fans who prior to Sunday had not watched  top flight football at the venue in more than 15 years, cheered every ball and every move made by the brewers and at the end of it were only too glad to adopt Tusker as their home team.

Mobbed players

At the end of the match, the fans mobbed Tusker players and members of the technical bench with coach Francis Kimanzi earning overnight celebrity status as most supporters scrambled to take a picture with him.

Kimanzi admitted that support from the fans made a huge difference to his side who also bounced back to winning ways after  a three-match losing streak.

“Their support made it very special for the boys. It pushed them to give their all and we are all delighted by the huge turn out,” he said.

Bigger matches

Tusker midfielder Brian Osumba who scored one of the three goals revealed that they were motivated to win it for the fans.

“It made a huge difference playing before such a huge crowd who are behind you. It is not something we are used to and it motivated us a great deal.

Even KRA coach Ken Kenyatta admitted that the fans made a huge difference in the results.

“Today, my boys were not really into the match and Tusker showed more determination to win it. However, the fans also made a huge difference in pushing our opponents to victory,” he said.

Meru County governor Peter Munya, who turned up for the match with his entire top executive, was a delighted man and said they will seek to host even bigger matches at the venue.

“This is a big day for Meru County with all this fans turning up. We have clearly proved that we are ready to host even bigger matches.

Tusker director Charles Obiny revealed that the team will host Gor Mahia at the said venue on May 24 in their KPL-Top 8 semi-final match after the Meru County government agreed to pick up the bill for the match.  —gwandera@standardmedia.co.ke