Sofapaka edge out 10-man Bandari in Mombasa

Sofapaka completed a brilliant comeback to edge out hosts Bandari 2-1 in the SportPesa Premier League at Mbaraki Sports Club on Saturday.

With runaway leaders Gor Mahia losing to Mathare United 1-0 in Thika, Sofapaka managed to trim the gap between them and the 15-time champions to 12 points with six matches to the end of the season.

A second half strike from Meshack Karani and a Mathius Kigonya penalty helped the visitors to collect all the three points despite going down midway through the first half to Edwin Lavatsa's goal.

Bandari had their goalkeeper and captain Wilson Obungu sent off by the Nairobi-based referee Raymond Onyango in the 87th minute for kicking Sofapaka striker Umar Kasumba.

An unruly Obungu refused to leave the pitch before Lavatsa and Kevin Omondi with some members of the technical bench to led him to the terraces.

“Our players never lost hope and in the second half, it was just a matter of time for us to equalise. When we levelled, the morale increased and it was no surprise for us to get the match winner,” said Sofapaka assistant coach John Baraza.

Bandari head coach Paul Nkata blamed his players for the loss.

“The goalkeeper failed to get out and save the ball, how can you blamed the coach?” he posed.

The game started at a cracking pace with Bandari making series of dangerous raids at their opponents' goal area. But they had to wait until the 24th minute that they took the lead after Lavatsa received a fine pass from Fred Nkata to blast the ball home.

In the second half, the visitors came back strongly and looked the better side. Karani took only three minutes after replacing Hillary Echesa to find the back of the net for Sofapaka's equaliser in the 73rd minute.

Kigonya then completed the comeback from the spot after Andrew Waiswa handled the ball inside the box five minutes from time.