Gunners woes continue after Rangers loss

What you need to know:

  • After Saturday's defeat, the Gunners remain pegged bottom of the table with two points from 13 matches. Gunners coach Emmanuel Mutisia has already thrown in the towel.

Gunners' poor run continued as they went down to visiting Rangers 36-32 during the men’s Kenya Handball Federation National League on Saturday at the Kaloleni grounds in Nairobi.

After Saturday's defeat, the Gunners remain pegged bottom of the table with two points from 13 matches. Gunners coach Emmanuel Mutisia has already thrown in the towel.

“It’s sad we gave away walk overs in some of the matches we could have won and now it’s coming back to haunt us. I can’t really tell how our season will end because they are fewer matches remaining. But we just want to improve on our performance,” said Mutisia.

Rangers coach Gerald Juma said they are getting better.

Rangers powered through their opponent’s defence scoring at will to lead 8-1 and 14-6 early one. Gunners begun to grow in the game with few noticeable efforts from Sammy Nzomo and Peter Chege's fast breaks but it was not enough as Rangers pulled away to comfortably lead 26-13 at the break.

On resumption, Gunners gained momentum and closed gap to 28-20 then 30-26 with Nzomo, Chege and David Kiragu partnering well upfront.

Rangers later found their footing and held onto their lead to win 36-32.

In other men’s league results, Makueni Bees beat University of Eldoret's Pippers 41-33.

The Machakos-based outfit led 19-14 at the break as John Abel (10) and Richard Simiyu (8) emerged top scorers while Davis Obata (10) and Joash Barismo (7) were the top scorers for the losers.

In the women’s category, once again National Youth Service (NYS) were a no show and the Kenya Defence Forces were awarded two points to move third on the table with eight points from four matches.

Last weekend, champions Nairobi Water Queens also benefited from a walk over after NYS failed to show up.

Queens and National Cereals and Produce Board, who are not in action this weekend, occupy the first and second positions with 14 points each although Queens have a game in hand.