Ullinzi battle to hold Sony Sugar

Ulinzi Stars came from a goal down to force a 1-1 draw with Sony Sugar in a SportPesa Kenya Premier League match at Afraha Stadium Nakuru on Sunday.

The soldiers have never beaten the sugar millers for the last three years in the domestic league.

The visitors took the game to the Ulinzi defence with the enterprising striker and the man-of-the-match Boniface Muchiri spearheading the attacks with his brilliant ball handling and distribution skills.

And in the 24th minute, the Salim Babu-coached Sony fired the match opener when Amos Asembeka pumped in a blockbuster past goalkeeper James Saruni.

After this goal, the Benjamin Nyangweso-coached Ulinzi Stars seemed not to be in a hurry to cancel the early lead as they displayed a sluggish attack.

On resumption, Nyangweso made three changes introducing Enosh Ochieng, John Kago and Oscar Wamalwa for Michael Otieno, Churchill Muloma and Stephen Waruru.

This gamble worked in favour of the soldiers as 15 minutes into the second half, Sammy Onyango rolled with the ball on the left flank and outpaced his marker and fired from inside the box a fierce drive which was blocked by goalkeeper Kevin Omondi before Stephen Waruru tapped into the empty net.

Sony coach Salim Babu brought in Victor Ademba, Justine Omary and George Abege for Hamisi Abdallah, Marwa Chamberi and Yemo Mwana.

Coach Nyangweso admitted his charges were not in good form and blamed the long lay off for the lucklustre show.

"I'm happy at least my boys snatched a single point from Sony. I think the boys were fatigued by the long lay off when the league had taken a break," said Nyangweso.

Coach Babu said his opponents disrupted their match pattern by using long balls in the second half which resulted into the equalizer.

"If they had stuck to ground balls I'm sure we would have carried the day otherwise their long balls disoriented our attacking pattern," said coach Babu.