Mobile Site
KENYA
NIGERIA
The Thika United versus Western Stima encounter at the Thika Municipal Stadium on Sunday 21 October ended in a barren draw.
Bright start
The home side started brightly but failed to beat an impressive Ben Roberts Mandela in the Stima goal particularly within the first 15 minutes of the game with the keeper saving well from Kepha Aswani and Wycliffe Opondo.
David Otieno fouled Moses Arita on the edge of the Stima area, earning himself an early caution, in the third minute, and from the resulting free kick Kepha Aswani picked his spot well but Mandela produced a wonderful save to tip it round for a corner.
Oluoch clearance
The attack from the corner was partially cleared and Moses Arita picked the ball and managed to beat Mandela but not Kevin Oluoch, who for some reason had come back to defend after the melee. Oluoch did manage to clear it off the line much to the Westerners’ relief.
With the home side piling more and more pressure for an early goal, Mandela was shortly after called to action again; this time by Wycliffe Opondo who took a good shot from range beating the Stima defence but Mandela punched it clear again.
Stima recovery
Stima slowly started settling in the game but their well strung passes were cut out in the final third, their first chance in the game on 28 minutes, fell to Alloys Mangi but the striker shot weakly at Indeche.
On 35 minutes Mangi set up Wesley Kemboi well but the Kenyan international’s first touch was too heavy and Indeche was quick in reacting thus making an easy save as the teams headed to the break goalless.
No impact
Both Henry Omino and John Kamau made a number of changes early in the second half with the home side introducing Vincent Otieno and Kennedy Otieno while Stima threw in Justin Monda and Nelson Simwa later on but they did not have any impact as far as goals were concerned.
Both sides stuck at their positions at the end of the game, with Thika United in fifth with 43 points and in real danger of falling lower if Sofapaka win against Rangers while Stima went a point to the good on 37 but stuck at seventh place after 27 matches.
