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Nzoia’s Babu warns Tusker and Gor, after closing gap

Monday, June 5th, 2023 11:00 | By
Nzoia Sugar coach Salim Babu at previous league match.
Nzoia Sugar coach Salim Babu at previous league match. PHOTO/Nzoia Sugar/Facebook.

Nzoia Sugar coach Salim Babu believes the Sugar Millers are still firmly in the FKF Premier League title race after their hard-fought 3-2 victory against Nairobi City Stars at Kasarani Annex on Saturday.

James Mazembe put City Stars ahead but Hassan Beja levelled matters for Nzoia for a 1-1 result at the half-time break. Nzoia then took the lead for the first time in the 52nd minute through Yasin Sije and he scored the third in the 73rd minute.

Though Kelvin Etemesi reduced the deficit for Simba wa Nairobi from the penalty spot in the 90th minute, Nzoia held on to bag their 18th victory of the season and move to within two points of leaders Tusker in the 18-team table.

“Mathematically, we are firmly in the title race and we will take it a game at a time, it is still in our hands to win the trophy and we will do everything and make sure we win all our remaining matches,” said Babu.

“Losing to Kariobangi [Sharks] last weekend was a huge blow to our title aspirations, and it was one of those games we did not deserve to lose, when I look at the game, I feel we deserved something from it, we created more chances than Sharks, but they got one chance and scored.

“That is in the past now, we have defeated City Stars, we are now two points behind Tusker and one behind Gor Mahia and anything is possible, we want to focus and win our remaining two matches.”

On the comeback victory against City Stars, Babu said: “Our mission was to bounce back to winning ways after the setback against Sharks and my players achieved exactly that, it was a 50-50 game, it could have gone either way but we are elated to bag maximum points.”

Nzoia fear losing the services of babu at the end of the season after the veteran tactician attracted several top clubs due to his ability to have steered a fairly average side and turned them into title contenders despite not having renowned star players like most of  their league rivals.

Nzoia, who are now on 63 points, will next face KCB on June 10 and wrap up the season with a clash against Sofapaka on June 17.

Meanwhile, Bandari continued with their resurgence under coach Twahir Muhiddin after they defeated Sofapaka 2-0 at Nyayo Stadium. Abdallah Hassan and James Kinyanjui scored for the visitors, who have now moved sixth on the log with 54 points.

Elsewhere, FC Talanta forced a 2-2 draw against Kariobangi Sharks.

Victor Ochieng and Clinton Machaka scored for Talanta while Tyson Otieno and Shariff Musa scored for Sharks.

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