Mulisa admits he is under pressure to win

Sunday Sunrise FC vs Pepiniere Rayon Sports vs Marines Etincelles vs Kirehe FC FridayAPR FC 1-1 Musanze APR head coach Jimmy Mulisa admits he is under pressure after a return of one win in the last seven matches in all competitions saw their title bid falter following defeat to relegation-threatened Gicumbi FC in midweek and a draw against Musanze on Friday. The league defending champions remain in second place with 39 points, one behind table leaders and archrivals Rayon Sports, who face 14th-placed Marines FC on Sunday at Kigali Regional Stadium from which a win would open up a four-point lead at the top and a game in hand against AS Kigali. Following the 1-1 draw with Musanze, Mulisa admitted that, “I am under pressure all the time but the performance from my players suggest we’re not falling apart. When you are coach of a team like APR you need to perform consistently because the fans expect you to win every match.” On the fans criticism, the former APR and Amvubi forward said, “They are within their right to say whatever, the criticism we’re receiving is deserved APR is big team and we cannot afford to drop points to lower teams.” Striker Wai Yeka scored for Musanze in the 40th minute from the spot after left back Emmanuel Imanishimwe handled in the forbidden area while Patrick Sibomana equalized for the military side in the 51st minute. The result means Mulisa’s team have dropped five points against lowly sides in a space of three days after losing 1-0 to Gicumbi on Wednesday. After three months in charge, Mulisa has played 17 games where he has won 9 games, losing three games, drawing five games. In those matches, his team has scored 21 goals and conceded 12. “We were not aggressive enough to win two games against Gicumbi and Musanze; we played like we don’t want. We need to work hard and improve in the next fixtures. We had chances to kill off the game but we failed to score because we were very poor in-front of goal,” said a visibly disappointed Mulisa. He noted that: “Our results from the last two matches have been very bad and disappointing. We played without the usual determination and character but we still created enough chances to win both games.” Against Musanze, the home side created numerous goal scoring chances and could have won easily, had it not been for the wastefulness of Sibomana, Issa Bigirimana, Djihad Bizimana, Sekamana Maxime and Innocent Nshuti. editorial@newtimes.co.rw