Mathare United’s striker Dennis Okoth returned to haunt his former team Shabana FC, scoring the match winner in his team’s 1-0 win in a Football Kenya Federation Premier League match at Gusii Stadium on Sunday.
At the same time, Gor Mahia ended Posta Rangers’ unbeaten start to the season with a 3-0 victory in a match played at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi.
Okoth, who featured for Shabana FC last season but crossed over to Mathare in the current campaign, returned to haunt his former employers when he found the back of the net in the 39th minute of the match.
Okoth easily beat Shabana’s goalkeeper, Maxwell Mulili, to score after the shotstopper misjudged the effort. The two teams went into halftime with Mathare leading 1-0.
When play resumed, Mathare’s coach John Kamau rested Steve Kimari for Sammy Imbuye, and Shabana’s coach Peter Okidi made a double substitution, introducing Victor Otieno and Junior Munika for Justine Omwando and Derrick Otieno respectively.
The two substitutions brought life into Shabana attack by the Slum Boys stood tall to bag the maximum points after the final whistle.
“I am happy with this victory. My players showed character and this is what I always tell them. It was a game of two halves. We dominated the first half and they dominated the second half. But I am happy we held on to emerge victorious," Kamau said.
Gor beat Rosta Rangers 3-0 with goals from Ben Stanley, Austin Odhiambo, and Felix Oluoch.
The match started with a minute’s silence in honour of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga who died on October 15 at the age of 80.
Odinga was Gor’s patron, and K’Ogalo were playing their first match since his demise. Gor Mahia fans unfurled banners bearing his face and in the 80th minute, as they honoured their departed patron with chants of “jowi! jowi!” and a minute’s applause.
After the match, Gor Mahia coach Charles Akonnor said the team was under pressure to win because they wanted to honour their late patron.
“This match was for Raila Odinga,” Akonnor said.
After a lacklustre first half, the match was decided in the second half with Akonnor’s substitutions making the difference.
“Posta Rangers are a good team and they made the first half difficult for us. The result shows that we are a tactical team. Before the match, we had a feeling that out substitutes will make the difference for us and we made a lot effort to prepare the players on the bench mentally,” Akonnor said.
His counterpart, Sammy “Pamzo” Omollo blamed the loss on mistakes his team made.
“We had contained Gor Mahia in the first half but in the second half we made mistakes that a team cannot afford to make against a team like Gor Mahia. We have ourselves to blame and going forward we will work on correcting that,” Omollo said.
The match saw few meaningful chances created by both teams in the first half with Posta Rangers’ Kevin Juma coming the closest to breaking the deadlock in the 41st minute but Gor Mahia goalkeeper Byrne Omondi dived low to his left to save the vicious long range effort.
Akonnor took off Samuel Kapen at the start of the second half and replaced him with Alpha Onyango, whose entry increased the match’s tempo.
The match’s increased pace manifested vividly in Gor Mahia winger Sherif Musa. His wing play on the left channel bamboozled the Posta Rangers defence in the 54th minute, allowing him to send a low cross into the box that was poked over the bar from close range by Fidel Origa.
That squandered gilt-edged chance was Origa’s last action in the match as he was taken off four minutes later together with Patrice Esombe in the 58th minute.
The duo were replaced by Ben Stanley Omondi and Felix Oluoch respectively. Ben Stanley made an immediate impact, rising high to head in Musa’s cross just seconds after coming on.
