Birthday-boy Hassan lifts Bandari past Leopards

Abdallah Hassan celebrated his 21st birthday in style after notching the winner as Bandari floored AFC Leopards 1-0 in a closely contested SportPesa Premier League match at Afraha Stadium, Nakuru on Sunday.

"This is my second goal of the season and scoring against giants like AFC Leopards is good particularly coming on my birthday," said Hassan.

It was a sweet revenge for the Dockers who suffered a similar margin defeat at the hands of Leopards in the first leg a fortnight ago in Mombasa.

Hassan, a defender-turned-striker, dedicated the goal to his teammates for making sure they returned home with maximum points.

But it is a game the Robert Matano-coached side will rue for a long time as they squandered a dozen scoring chances with Victor Majid, Duncan Otieno and Allan Kateregga firing wide in front of the goal.

Majid's long range shot in the 35th minute was stopped by experienced Bandari custodian Wilson Obungu who had brilliant afternoon between the sticks.

With three minutes before the end of first half, Otieno’s free kick outside the box was parried for a fruitless corner by Obungu.

Hassan then raced with ball on the left wing, evaded a tackle and drew goalkeeper Gilbert Andika from his position, before slotting home the winner at the stroke of half-time.

Matano then introduced Katerega and Marcellus Ingotsi for Alexis Kitenge and Samuel Ndung'u and and this saw Leopards virtually camp in Bandari's territory but failed to translate the territorial advantage into goals.

However, in a bizarre turn of things, an agitated Matano recalled Kateregga after playing for less than 15minutes and replaced him with Andrew Tololwa.

This did not go down well with the Ugandan who instead of heading to the bench, he approached Matano and briefly exchanged bitter words before goalkeeper Ian Otieno, who was on the bench, intervened.

"Katerega was a non-performer with so many mis-passes. I had to make a second decision to replace him," said coach Matano.

Bandari brought in Kevin Omondi, Jacob Keli and Anthony Wambani for Ivan Kiwelwa, Baron Oketch and Wilberforce Lugogo as coach Paul Nkata went all out in attack late on.

"This is bad because we had a share of good chances but wasted them," said Matano.

Nkata said the victory was a sweet revenge for them as they lost in a similar fashion to Leopards at home.

"There is nothing sweet in football as avenging defeat and I am happy we have beaten our opponents," said Nkata.