Nairobi City Stars centre back Kennedy Onyango is confident of a strong second-leg performance in the Kenyan Premier League following a decent 3-0 win over Mathare United over the weekend.
Onyango, who captained the team during the rare win, is optimistic they will have a strong finish to compensate for the poor stretch during the first leg.
City Stars have been on a rough patch for the better part of the season to rank 16th on the standings with 20 points, just a point above Mathare United in the promotion/relegation playoff slot.
“It was a survival decider,” he said of the win against Mathare. "Where we are is embarrassing. But how we finish the race is more important than how we began. We still have a chance to fight and correct our previous mistakes.”
“The only thing we can promise is to give our best and once the consistency is there, we can beat any team on a good day,” he added
Onyango has featured in all but one league game for Simba wa Nairobi this season, clocking 90 minutes in 19 of the 20 he has played.
At the same time, midfielder Newton Ochieng is looking forward to scoring more goals after breaking his duck against Mathare.
On as a substitute, Ochieng raced down the middle in the 86th minute to slum home a well-weighed pass from debutant James Mazembe to finish off a counterattack.
“It has been my daily dream to have a goal in the top flight. When I got subbed in, I knew we were going to have more goals because of the two-goal advantage we had,” said Ochieng
“The urge to score was on me, especially after (Kelvin) Etemesi broke his league silence with a brace. It inspired me to put the ball in the net even though at that stage we were playing without two players. It feels good to score and, hopefully, I will go in with the same urgency in upcoming matches.”
Ochieng, an off-season signing from third-tier side Vapor Sports, was playing his 15th game of the season and has so far accumulated 607 minutes.
