AFC Leopards slow but sure rise up the Sportpesa Premier League table continued yesterday, thanks to a 1-0 win over Chemelil Sugar at the Moi International Sports Centre (MISC), Kasarani.
Young striker Vincent Oburu struck what proved to be the winning goal ten minutes into the evenly balanced match up. The victory saw Leopards climb into tenth place with 42 points with Chemelil falling to 12th in the standings, three points behind Leopards.
On Wednesday Zoo Kericho will host Thika United in a relegation battle six pointer that had been moved to Kisumu but will now be played at Zoo’s Green Stadium backyard. It will be a welcome boost for Zoo who find themselves just two points above the drop zone with as many matches left to play.
The battle for survival will go into the final weekend after relegation threatened sides Mathare United and Western Stima both picked vital victories. Mathare made hard work of their clash with already relegated Muhoroni Youth before eventually claiming a 2-1 win.
Edwin Seda gave the slum boys the lead on the stroke of half-time, a lead that was erased ten minutes after the break by Maxwell Onyango. Promising striker Cliff Nyakenya was for the second successive match the talisman as he netted the winner five minutes later to give Mathare the three points that pushed them into14th place with 38 points.
Western Stima too still have hopes of beating the drop following a battling 1-0 win over third-placed Posta Rangers. Ezekiel Otuoma struck the winner that saw Stima take their points haul to 35. Sofapaka moved to within a point of finishing second in the league after a gritty 1-0 win away at dethroned champions Tusker. As he has done often since moving away from Ruaraka in 2013, defender Humprey Okoti came back to haunt Tusker as his first half goal secured all three points for Sammy Ssibwa’s charges, who leapfrogged the brewers into second place.
Sofapaka have 52 points, two more than Tusker who fell to third. Ulinzi Stars lost 1-0 away at Bandari to kill their hopes of repeating last season’s third place finish. Kariobangi Sharks moved into fifth place after yet another big victory. Masoud Juma struck twice to extend his goal scoring lead to 17 with Duke Abuya also scoring two goals in the 4-1 win over Nzoia United.