AFC Leopards their five-game winless streak by beating Posta Rangers 1-0 in a Kenyan Premier League match at the Nyayo National Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
The 12-time KPL champions scored their lone goal of the match in the first stanza courtesy of defender Washington Munene.
The win lifts Leopards off the 16th place on the table for the first time in months and, remarkably, takes them all the way up to 13th place above Mathare United.
They are level on points with Mathare, Police and Tusker on 16 but move ahead of all of them because of their superior goal difference.
Ingwe began the match in front of their home crowd with the look of a team who had something to prove, which they certainly did.
Backed by their boisterous fans, the hosts were immediately on the front foot and generated a number of chances early on. However, they were inaccurate with their shooting and had just one shot on target out of nine in the first half, with Brian Wanyama proving particularly wasteful.
It looked as if they might come to rue those wasted chances as Rangers began to attack. All of a sudden, Leopards could not get their feet on the ball and the visitors began to wrack up a few chances of their own.
Unfortunately for the traveling fans, Rangers were just as poor in front of goal, if not worse, and ended the match with zero shots on target throughout the entire 90 minutes.
With all of the strikers on the pitch misfiring, it was left to Washington Munune to lead from the front and he did just that in the 32nd minute.
Leopards coach Patrick Aussems was disappointed with his side’s performance against Rangers.
“We scored early and defended well, but I’m not satisfied with the performance especially on a good pitch like Nyayo. Bad results in our previous matches were caused by the mass exodus of 15 players and we recruited a few when the window was closing,” said the Belgian.
“The pressure has reduced and I hope they will enjoy the next game against Vihiga Bullets in Kakamega over the weekend.”
In other KPL matches played on Thursday, Bandari FC were held to a goalless draw by KCB at Mbaraki Stadium whereas Gor Mahia thrashed Vihiga Bullets 3-0 at at Bukhungu Stadium.
George Odhiambo, Boniface Omondi, and Peter Lwasa scored for K’Ogalo, who moved to the top of the standings after seven games.
Photo Credit:FKF Caretaker Committee
