Struggling City Stars’ fate in top flight league almost sealed

City Stars coach Robinson Ofwoku has conceded that the club is living on borrowed time in the Kenyan Premier League.

The Nigerian tactician, however, adds that the team will still put up a fight in their remaining engagements even as relegation looms large.

City Stars are second from bottom and look to likely to follow the already relegated Top Fry Nakuru against whom they play on Sunday.

Anything short of victory over the Nakuru side at Afraha Stadium will bring to an end City Stars’ nine-year stay in the Kenyan Premier League.

Ofwoku’s charges will still be demoted to the second-tier league if their nearest challengers, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), register a win over Sony Sugar at Ruaraka on the same day.

The coach has in the meantime attributed the team’s poor performance this season to the loss of three dependable players mid-season.

BIG BLOW

“The loss of Jimmy Bageya, Bruno Sserunkuma and Dennis ‘Baggio’  Ng’ang’a in January was a big blow to us and we seem never to have recovered,” Ofwoku said.

“Now the team is going down and there are a lot things that have gone wrong, mainly from the officiating part. But I have urged the players to work hard and not be distracted by the relegation threat. We should not go down for lack of effort,” he added.

Analysts have also linked the club’s current woes to the raft of financial challenges that have dogged the team for the past four seasons.

This situation forced the team to let go of some of its star players including Victor Wanyama, Dan Sserunkuma and David Gateri.

The club is still awaiting an estimated Sh10 million from EPL club Southampton in solidarity fees for its role in nurturing national team captain Wanyama.

Chairman Peter Jabuya has maintained the team would not have been in its current situation had the club managed to access the funds.