By Otniel Hembapu
WINDHOEK – Pressure is mounting on African Stars’ under-fire mentor, Woody Jacobs, with disgruntled fans calling for his axing but the youthful coach is having none of that.
He lambasted critics who are apparently fed up with the team’s inconsistency in the aftermath of their 3-1 defeat at the hands of Blue Waters in last weekend’s league action. A defiant Jacobs insists that if given more time, his charges will garner the desired results.
In an interview with New Era Sport yesterday, Jacobs refused to entertain letting the team’s sluggish start to their league campaign dampen their future prospects but however admitted the pressure at the Katutura glamour football club is immense and incomparable to being at other teams, hence his desire to put in extra work as he looks to start collecting points.
“Stars is a big club and trust me, being a coach of such an enormous club obviously comes with huge responsibilities and certain expectations. I also understand fans want to witness good results in each and every match we play, but to be realistic, we have so far only lost two matches, won two and drew one from five matches and that’s not a bad record given that it’s still the opening phase of the league, and most of those games were tough and some were also away from home,” he said.
Jacobs adds that he is ready to take responsibility for the lukewarm results but demands that players also take full responsibility to make sure they give 110 percent performance. ‘’ I want to see more hunger, concentration and more focus on wanting to win games, that is the sort of response I will be looking for in upcoming games.”
Stars are currently lying 5th on the MTC Namibia Premier League (NPL) log standings, 8 points adrift of table toppers Tigers.