Relegation battle

By Gilbert Wandera

Tail enders Bandari and Nairobi City Stars hopes of surviving relegation were boosted following their weekend wins as the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) seasons reaches the crucial point.

City Stars perched in the 14th place were the biggest beneficiaries after bringing down champions Ulinzi Stars in a 2-1 win at Afraha Stadium in Nakuru. This marks the turning point in their battle to remain in the league.

Coach Gideon Ochieng termed the victory a bonus insisting it was not in his plans. "Our strategy of avoiding relegation starts this weekend when we play the first of our five home matches. When we went to Nakuru our idea was to avoid a loss. The three points are a major bonus for us. It gives us a lot of hope that we can avoid going down," he explained.

Game plan

Ochieng praised his players for sticking to his plans for the Nakuru match. "We understand our opponents very well and knew that if we would deny them the balls and lock the spaces it will put them out of the game.

"Our strategy was to keep the ball as much as possible because this would force them to come at us and then we go for counter attacks. In the end it worked as all our goals came from counter-attacks," explained Ochieng.

City Stars play fellow relegation threatened side Congo United at City Stadium on Saturday.

Ironically, Ochieng handled the Coastal side at the beginning of this season before he was fired for poor performance and this is the first time he is coming face to face with his former club.

A chance for him to prove his point.

Bandari coach Rishadi Shedu insists they are not out of the woods yet though the 1-0 win over Gor Mahia gives them a glimmer of hope.

Back on track

"That win was very important for us because it puts us on the recovery path. But we still have a long way to go and it looks like this is a battle that will go to the end of the season. However one thing I’m sure of is that Bandari will be one of the teams that will survive relegation," he said.

Bandari have two other home fixtures against Western Stima and Thika United before the season comes to a close and Shedu said he wants to collect maximum points at his backyard and attempt to get positive results away.

"We will always go back to our good home record which has helped us pick most of our wins. The challenge remains for us to transfer the same performance in our away fixtures," he said.

While Bandari and City Stars celebrated, Congo United continued with their poor performance at home going down 4-1 to visiting Sony Sugar from Awendo.