NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 29 – At the end of the 90 minutes, there was nothing to separate Kenya’s two oldest rivals Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards as the two played to a barren draw in an FKF Premier League match at the Kasarani Stadium on Sunday.
Clear cut chances were few and far in between, with the two sides playing to a 0-0 derby draw for the fourth time in the last six meetings. It was also a sixth consecutive time that Leopards have failed to score against Gor in a league meeting.
There wasn’t much of goal scoring action in the opening half, until Leopards came alive with three consecutive efforts on target in the last five minutes of the game.
With options short due to injury and limited personnel, AFC coach Patrick Aussems threw utility player Lewis Bandi at left back, with Washington Munene out injured.
He retained the core of his side with Cliff Nyakeya and Ojo Olaniyi leading the hunt for goals.
In the 42nd minute, Leopards broke on the counter with Cliff Nyakeya putting Victor Omune through, the latter slapping a cross into the area but Ojo Olaniyi’s target was tame and straight to keeper Gad Mathews’ arms.
Two minutes later, he had another effort on target when he connected to a Nyakeya delivery from a freekick, but once again he couldn’t land power on his shot as the effort was easily saved by the keeper.
At the stroke of halftime, Nyakeya had another effort when he won the ball on the left after Paul Ochuoga’s poor clearance.
But once again, Mathews made a comfortable save.
Before that, Gor’s only efforts at goal were off a former Leopards player Austin Odhiambo. He tried his luck with shots from distance but both were over.
Joshua Onyango who scored ion the midweek 3-0 win over Talanta also had an effort with a header from Dennis Ng’ang’a’s corner, but he couldn’t land it on target.
In the second half, Gor were the first to make changes, Alpha Onyango coming in for Sydney Ochieng who looked to have been struggling with injury.
Leopards also made changes with Giovanni Lukhumwa and Saad Musa coming in to strengthen the midfield.
Musa had a chance to score barely seconds after coming on, but his shot from distance with keeper Mathews a yard off his line flying inches wide. On the other end, Alpha also tried a similar effort for Gor but it flew wide as well.
