Andrew Tololwa on target to dent Leopards title ambition

By GILBERT WANDERA and BOSCO MAGARE

AFC Leooards will most likely have to forget the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) title after falling 2-1 to Tusker at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, on Sunday.

Andrew Tololwa’s last minute goal ended the match in favour of the brewers after Allan Wanga had equalised for Leopards in the 17th minute.

The league’s top scorer Jesse Were opened the scores for Tusker early in the match with a fifth minute goal that shocked Leopards.

Leopards were the more motivated side and should have been up within the opening five minutes when Aboud Omar was forced to come out and block Noah Wafula’s goal-bound shot.

The effort earned AFC their first corner. This was cleared by Khalid Aucho, who found an unmarked Were whose first shot hit the cross bar before crawling inside the net for Tusker’s opener.

Stunned by the early goal, Leopards engineered a fight back and Noah Wafula nearly equalised in the seventh minute had Luke Ochieng’ not done everything to stop him and in the process earned himself the first booking.

Tusker were not taking it lying down and also got their first corner in the 10th minute after Eric Masika cleared a goal bound effort.

But it was Leopards who came into the match just before the 20th minute mark when Edwin Wafula laid up a great pass to Wanga who simply tapped home.

But Aucho was combining well with Were in front and the latter just missed out to add his second in the 25th minute when he was denied by Martin Musalia after being put through by Aucho.

The second half was a largely see-saw affair before substitute Tololwa made all the difference with an 87th minute continuing Tusker’s domimance over Leopards.

Meanwhile, Muhoroni Youth were held to a barren draw by Kakamega Homeboyz as the latter battled to escape the relegation nooze.

Both teams were hit by a windy first-half due to the prevailing rainy and wet weather in Nyando Sugarbelt

The weather stabilised during the second-half with Muhoroni Youth dominating the proceedings through the trio of overlapping defender Frankline Osama, Paul Mboya and Peter Odiwour, but Homeboyz custodian John Wahu stood tall between the posts.

Homeboyz countered through Peter Waweru and Geoffrey Simiyu, the latter being a former Muhoroni player who mastered the pitch.

In the dying minutes, Muhoroni defender Osama sent a cross  which hit the bar to the chagrin of the home fans who had started celebration.