By Bonface Osano,

AFC Leopards 1-1 Gor Mahia

The much hyped ‘Mashemeji Derby’ on Sunday truly lived up to the belief that derbies respect no form; a goal apiece in each half were enough to settle a duel that almost all soccer pundits expected to go the high riding K’Ogalo way.

AFC Leopards were the underdogs coming into this match but that never showed as they matched their in-laws pound for pound; they were the first to show early signs of going ahead with Ugandan import Emmanuel Ngama testing K’Ogalo keeper Boniface Oluoch a couple of times in the early exchanges.

However it was Gor who grabbed the opener in the 35^th minute thanks to Ali Abondo’s beauty of a goal from a superb build up inside the box to send packed Nyayo Stadium into a frenzy, the match headed into breather with Gor enjoying the slim lead.

On resumption coach Logarusic steadied Ingwe’s ship in the midfield pulling out colorless Fredrick Ndaaka for Benard Mangoli and 5 minutes later Jacob Keli drive home a loose ball inside Gor Mahia box after Austin Ikenna’s cross on the right was poorly dealt with by K’Ogalo defenders. Ugly scenes ensued immediately after as Gor defender Haron Shakava fiercely confronted Ingwe’s Emmanuel Ngama for pinning him down inside the net, the latter was booked for the offence.

The exchanges thereafter were less inspiring as both sides resorted to long balls in search of the winning goal to no avail, this put K’Ogalo’s 100% start to the league to a halt, they are however still the table toppers with 13 points from 5 matches.

Ingwe kept the edge over their rivals in this derby maintaining the 5 wins gap; this was the 77^th edition of the Nairobi Derby and the 5^th for Coach Zdravko Logarusic who has never lost a match in this battle. Leopards are 7^th in the KPL table with 9 points from 6 matches.

Kudos to both sets of fans for keeping peace, the true spirit of the derby ‘ushemeji’ prevailed.

Find me on twitter at @bonfaceosano

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