Black Stars miss chance to go top

Victory would have taken Kibera Black Stars at par with National Super League (NSL) leaders Western Stima but a 2-1 loss to rivals City Stars at Camp Toyoyo grounds on Sunday halted their dream.

Stephen Inganji unleashed a left foot volley from inside the area three minutes after the opening whistle for the opener. Inganji capitalised on Black Stars’ failure to deal with John Kamau's drop ball from a free kick to find the back of the net.

Ten minutes later, Jimmy Bageya beat his marker on the left flank and delivered a cross into the box that Black Stars defender Nicodemus Onyango failed to clear and the ball lurched on Mango Abdurahaman’s feet who buried home with ease.

Ronald Ochieng’ pulled one back in the 25th minute with a clever connection off Wilson Njuguna’s dangerous cross from the left flank.

Black Stars dropped to fifth spot on 14 points, three below leaders Western Stima, as City Stars took their points tally to 10 after eight rounds.

“We gifted them two easy goals earlier into the match which destabilized us. We’ve struggled to record good results recently but we shall not give up working harder,” said Black Stars coach Godfrey Oduor after the match.

“We are poor defending set pieces which cost us against City Stars and we’ve to rectify that,” he added.

For City Stars, winning against teams above them is what keeps them motivated according to coach John Amboko.

“We draw our motivation from such wins. This is our second year in the second tier, our objective is to work our away up and that can happen by wins against leading teams,” the former AFC Leopards and City Stars defender said.

In the second match played at the same venue, Ushuru bounced back from last weekend's 3-0 loss to Coast Stima to humble Nairobi Stima 3-1, thanks to a brace from Billy Opwora and one from Benson Amianda.

Former Tusker striker, Ghanaian Stephen Owusu netted a consolation for the Ibrahim Shikanda-coached Stima in the 72nd minute.

“We are still into our target of aiming for promotion. I was impressed with the boys’ display today. I enjoyed the transition during the entire game,” an elated Ushuru coach Ken Kenyatta said, as his counterpart lacked words to express the disappointment.

“We just have to go back to the drawing board and continue motivating these boys. We didn’t get things right in the match and we shall correct them in training,” Stima assistant coach Fred Ambani said.

SUNDAY'S RESULTS

Modern Coast Rangers 0-0 Talanta

City Stars 2-1 Kibera Black Stars

Ushuru 3-1 Nairobi Stima

Isibania 1-2 Coast Stima