Tusker head coach Charles Okere believes this is their season after edging Bandari 1-0 at Kenyatta Stadium, Machakos, on Wednesday to go top of the Kenyan Premier League table.
Thomas Omole’s goal was enough to separate the two sides following a riveting encounter that witnessed a flurry of missed opportunities.
“I am happy with today’s outcome. This is a satisfactory outcome considering the nature of our opponents. I’m glad the players remained faithful to the script throughout the encounter and we deserved to have won by a greater margin,” he said.
The win has bolstered their title ambitions.
“We are all hoping to decorate our cabinet with a major silverware this season and would be thrilled to lay claim to the KPL title with our sights firmly trained on continental football,” he said.
Bandari head coach Ken Odhiambo conceded defeat saying they crashed to a more organised opponent.
“We gave our best shot but things didn’t work out as planned. We’ve noted some areas we need to work on before our next encounter. We still believe we are very much in the title race,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kenya Police FC head coach Etienne Ndayiragije was over the moon after his charges surmounted a tough challenge to pip Posta Rangers 3-2 at Kenyatta Stadium, Machakos, on Wednesday.
Marvin Nabwire’s last-gasp effort sealed the crucial victory for the Nairobi-based law enforcers in the nail-biting five-goal thriller that had spectators on the edge of their seats.
Ndayiragije showered his talent laden squad with flowery words, saying they put up a master-class act to fend off an enormous opposition on their way to victory.
“The result is everything we dreamt of and I’m glad we ultimately managed to tuck away the crucial maximum points to climb to the third spot,” he said.
“I’m glad our confidence levels are growing with each win. Like any other side in the league, we continue holding on to our aspirations for a maiden topflight title. However, we intend to take each match at a time. We don’t want to pile so much pressure on the players because doing so would distract them from our objective of getting the best out of each match,” he said.
Posta Rangers head coach Sammy ‘Pamzo’ Omollo, handling his first assignment since his appointment a couple of days ago, rued squandered opportunities in the hotly contested encounter.
“We had our moments in the game which we could have used to seal a win but failed to utilise most of the chances we created. All in all, we had a brilliant game and I believe we were the better side in all aspects of the game,” he said.
“We hope to bounce back strongly in our next match because we have enough depth to bag maximum points from the subsequent matches,” he said.
Following Patrick Matasi’s mistake in the previous game against Kakamega Homeboyz, police took the audacious decision to remove him from the squad.
His
backup, Job Ochieng, was selected
to start, and veteran Rueben Juma
was placed on the bench.
