Mathare United came from two goals down to hold champions Tusker to a
2-2 draw in an entertaining league clash at Nyayo National Stadium on
Sunday.
The home side took the lead in the 16th minute courtesy of Kenneth
Wendo whose long range left footed strike was parried into his own net
by Mathare goalkeeper Joseph Ruto.
With the visitors struggling to find their usual passing game, they
were vulnerable at the back and the brewers were soon 2-0 up after Emeka
made a surging run on to the left wing before crossing for Paul Were
who beat Ruto with a composed finish on 24 minutes.
Mathare were much more improved in the second half with its midfield
dictating play and they were rewarded in the 72nd minute when substitute
Andrew Tololwa headed in Innocent Mutiso’s cross to reduce the arrears.
The slum boys had their tails up and they poured forward in
search of the equaliser forcing the brewers to retreat into their own
half.
Their efforts paid off in the 88th minute when captain Anthony Kimani
who was making his first start in over a month, equalised with a
thumping header of a corner off a Mutiso corner.
They had a chance to win it in added time but Jesse Were’s fierce shot was saved by Tusker keeper Samuel Odhiambo.
Following the result, Tusker remain third with 19 points while Mathare stay 12th position with nine.
Mathare coach Stanley Okumbi was satisfied with the result, “I told
my boys that even though we were 2-0 down, we could level the scores. We
made changes that worked and got back into the game and towards the end
we were almost winning it.”
On the other hand, Tusker coach Sammy Omollo could not hide his disappointment.
“We had the opportunity to kill the game but that clearly didn’t
happen as Mathare fought back to pick a point but that is football. We
had our chances and we couldn’t utilize them.”
No comments:
Post a Comment