City-based club beat Kisumu counterparts in hotly-contested battle of Simbas

By ELIZABETH MBURUGU

Hockey premier league champions Nairobi routed Kisumu Simba 2-1 in the tightly contested Simba derby at the City Park stadium on Sunday evening.

The highly anticipated derby lived up to expectation with both teams fighting to outclass each other.

None of the Simbas was ready to open up and give the opponent an opportunity to go up with most play seen at the midfield.

However, Maxwel Wakhungu’s foul against Nairobi’s Wilson Otieno landed the lakeside club in trouble as Nairobi were awarded a penalty.

Otieno did not waste that golden moment by scaling Nairobi to the lead in the 21st minute through a penalty kick. Kisumu Simba players did not give up easily and kept on fighting and a 29th minute deflection by Nairobi’s Firoz Bashir left Kisumu players protesting over a denied goal but both umpires awarded a short corner instead.

Scramble

The 40th minute saw a scramble for the ball in Kisumu’s territory but the defence was up to task clearing the ball. Frank Wanangwe pulled one back in the 43rd minute to level the score a goal that saw Nairobi players protest.

Junior Wanangwe turning in for Nairobi slotted in the winning in the 51th minute scoring a fantastic field goal.

  “We gave it our best but lost. The boys played well but luck was not on our side, we look forward for a win in our next match,” Kisumu Simba’s team manager James Opiyo said. Kisumu are now third on the log with nine points following there weekend win against Mombasa Sports Club (MSC). Champs Nairobi are tied with Greensharks on nine points from five matches.

First Win

 In another encounter, Kenya College of Accountancy University (KCA-U) beat MSC 4-0 to register their first win of the season.

Kevin Oduor opened the score for the students in the 22nd minute, Daniel Tatara added a second three minutes later.

Oduor was at it again in the 50th minute adding his second to his goal tally and five minutes later Tony Simiyu made it four to seal the big victory. KCAU now move to sixth place on the log up from tenth.

Kenya Police versus Greensharks match was called off but the former still top the log with 18 points having won all their league matches.

 Women national league defending champions Orange Telkom are now 12 points clear off their closest rival Strathmore after their successful weekend outing in Mombasa. They beat MSC 18-0 to make it seven wins out of seven matches played.