Tusker held as Mathare United and City Stars win their KPL matches

Tusker Khalid Auocho(L) and Wycliffe Mbugua of Thika United battle for ball possession during their KPL match at Ruaraka ground, Nairobi on Sunday 02/11/14.PHOTO.BONIFACE OKENDO

Tusker FC’s hopes of winning to pile pressure on Kenyan Premier League (KPL) leaders Gor Mahia and second-placed Sofapaka was dented when they were held to a 2-2 draw by Thika United at Ruaraka grounds yesterday.

Tusker, who still lie third in the log, had both their goals scored by Jesse Were as Michael Olunga and Wycliffe Opondo netted for the visitors.

 In another match played at the same venue, Sony Sugar settled for a barren draw against Kenya Commercial Bank.

Mathare United registered a 2-0 win over Western Stima at Nyayo Stadium yesterday to keep alive their top-eight finish hopes.
Goals from Daniel Mwaura and Eric Johanna were enough to give United a well-deserved victory.

United were the more aggressive side right from the word go, with Stima goalkeeper Stephen Odhiambo the busier of the two custodians.
Mwaura was very active; he forced Odhiambo to make an early save in the 22nd minute which resulted in the first corner of the match.

The effort at goal continued and in the 26th minute Mwaura was allowed too much space by the Stima defenders and he sneaked in well to put the ball beyond the Western Stima goalkeeper.
The goal helped build great momentum in the United side, which kept them pushing for the second.

It did not take long before the second goal. From a great build-up, Johanna scored the second and final goal in the 29th minute.

When the second half started, Stima were the more aggressive side and were denied on two occasions; first when John Kiplagat’s long ball went wide and then Ali Bai shot wide with only the goalkeeper to beat.

From then on, United were in charge of the proceedings and were unlucky not to win this match by a bigger margin.
In Nakuru, relegation-bound Nairobi City Stars collected maximum points after registering a 1-0 win against Nakuru All Stars 1-0.

George Abege scored the all-important goal in the 77th minute for the City side from a goalmouth melee after beating two defenders and looped the ball past Shaban Odhonji.
Earlier, All Stars had lost quite a number of scoring chances that could have made the difference.

John Ndirangu, who kept alternating in the wings was to blame for not securing at least a goal for his team in the first half.

Ndirangu failed to beat City Stars custodian Kevin Ochieng in the 68th minute after he had dribbled past their defence only to blast the ball wide.

Five minutes later, defender Geoffrey Maina’s powerful volley also missed the target with Ochieng’ (Kevin) well beaten.

On their part, City Stars also wasted a golden opportunity in the dying minutes after Dennis Okoth’s powerful drive was blocked by Odhonji. -Reports by Rebecca Gichana, Ben Ahenda and Gilbert Wandera