Gor Mahia 's hope for hat-trick remains alive

Administration Police's Lawrence Wanyama challenges Gor Mahia's Mohamed Musa, front, at City Stadium on Friday, Nov 20, 2015. PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO.

NAIROBI: Gor Mahia are on course for the treble after they edged out Administration Police 3-1 at City Stadium, Nairobi, Friday to make it to the semi-final of the GOtv Shield tournament.

George Odhiambo grabbed a brace for Gor with Meddie Kagere adding the other. The law enforcers, handled by former international Tom Juma, scored the consolation goal through Salim Mzee.
Juma, a former Gor Mahia midfielder. Tom Juma praised his boys for the good performance and for reaching the quarter finals of the knock-out tournament.

“We had a tremendous season and reaching here is proof of that. We are looking to doing even better in the league where we are currently placed third,” he said. “We did our best against Gor and held them for long. Their experience finally paid off and hopefully we can do better next year.”

Gor Mahia, who will meet Nakumatt in the semi-finals, started strongly. Good co-ordination between Haroun Shakava and George Odhiambo gave the Administration Police backline plenty of trouble.

Frank Nuttall opted to start his top striker Michael Olunga on the bench, but this did not affect the team’s quest for goals.

Odhiambo struck first in the 18th minute, scoring from near the post. The goal gave Gor a lot of impetus as they pinned their inexperienced opponents in their own half. The former Kenyan Premier League player of the year added his second in the 35th minute as he cut in from the left, leaving defenders for dead before unleashing an unstoppable shot past the goalkeeper to double the advantage before the break. The second half saw a determined AP side pressing for an equaliser, with the Green Army also getting its fair share of chances, but both sides were not clinical enough.

In the 58th minute, Salim Mzee took advantage of Jerim Onyango’s wrong positioning to place the ball well far from his reach to pull one back for the lower tier division side.

Gor finally brought in Michael Olunga for George Odhiambo with 10 minutes to go, and the combination between the new comer and Kagere produced instant results.

Olunga set up Kagere to score the third goal and ended all efforts by the law enforcers to come back into the match.

Bandari are already in the final of the tournament and will wait to play the winner of Gor Mahia and Nakumatt match.