Gor Mahia regain FKF PL summit as Tusker FC slip in Nzoia

• Gor Mahia beat Kenya Police 1-0
• Tusker lost by a similar margin away to Nzoia Sugar
• K’Ogalo have a two-point lead over Tusker

Gor Mahia regained their hold on the top spot in the FKF Premier League after edging out Kenya Police FC 1-0 at the Moi Sports Centre Kasarani. Austin Odhiambo scored the lone goal for K’Ogalo in the second half as they regained their hold on top spot just three days after the brewers had gone ahead.

Tusker slipped to second after losing by a similar margin to third placed Nzoia Sugar in Bungoma.

James Kibande scored the single goal for Nzoia from the penalty spot, to dent Tusker’s charge for the title. However, the brewers were felt undone after a late disallowed goal, with head coach Robert Matano also dejected by the number of chances missed.

“We had a goal disallowed by the referee which was a clean goal. But also, we lost so many scoring chances, which we could not use. But nothing is over, we will keep fighting until the season is over because our target is to defend our title,” Matano said after the match in Nzoia.

In nzoia, the two teams walked into the pitch at 3:45pm, three quarters of an hour from the set kick off time due to the heavy rains in Sudi.

With a good capacity crowd, pushing on the home team, Tusker looked to silence them early and they were off to a fast paced start with Michael Oduor being a constant threat on the left. He twice floated in crosses that were not converted.

Luvanda with a close chance

Lawrence Luvanda in action against Nzoia Sugar

Eric Otieno also did well to float a cross from the left, but Lawrence Luvanda was a second late arriving to tap at the backpost.

The home side got into the lead after 23 minutes from the penalty spot when Hassan Beja was brought down inside the box by keeper Brian Bwire and James Kibande stepped up to convert.

Tusker put in the effort to try and get back into the game and towards the end of the half had two chances with David Odoyo shooting over while Luvanda had an effort with a connection at the backpost go just wide.

In the second half, Tusker made changes with Jackson Macharia, Deogratious Ojok, Stewart Omondi and Shami Mwinyi all coming in for Luvanda, Otieno, Shaphan Oyugi and Mike Otieno.

The changes added some punch into the Tusker forward line and Shami almost made an immediate impact when he took a shot from distance but it was deflected wide for a corner.

With six minutes to go, Tusker scored what they thought was an equalizer by Macharia, but much to the dismay of the players and technical bench, the goal was ruled out for an apparent foul on the keeper from a corner, though the custodian had stumbled on his own teammate.

Macharia had a golden chance in added time when he picked up the ball unmarked from inside the box, but his shot was well saved by Humphrey Katasi in the Nzoia goal.

The brewers forced Nzoia to play on the backfoot in the remaining six minutes of added time, dumping long balls into the area. Keeper Humphrey Katasi put up a brilliant performance to pick out all the crosses while at the death, he did well to pick out a shot from levin Odhiambo from a tight angle on the left.