Defending Kenya Premier League champions Gor Mahia suffered their first defeat of the season against Nairobi City Stars in a match played at Machakos Stadium on Monday 28th October.
Gor Mahia were playing this match without 5 of their regular players who are away on national team duty with Harambee Stars as they prepare for the second leg of the CHAN qualifier against South Sudan.
The missing players include defenders Alphonse Omija, Sylvester Owino, and Geofrey Ochieng’, and midfieders Ronney Onyango and Austin Odhiambo, who was voted the KPL MVP last season.
Gor Mahia started the game well and dominated proceedings in the early stages. Their efforts were rewarded in the 24th minute when defender Levin Opiyo riffled a shot from outside the box into the back of the net to open the scoring.
Kogalo could have doubled the lead in the 36th minute but Sharif Musa was denied by the brilliant goalkeeping from Edwin Mukolwe to ensure the scoreline remained 1-0 in favor of Gor Mahia going into the break.
The second half saw a rejuvenated City Stars side coming out in search of a goal and wasting several chances, with striker Kelvin Etemesi unable to hit the target at the end of some nice moves.
The efforts of City Stars finally paid off in the 60th minute when Robinson Asenwa scored from a nice pass provided by Mohammed Bajaber to level the scores at 1-1.
Things got worse for Gor Mahia in the 68th minute when City Stars took a deserving lead through former Gor player Dennis Oalo.
City Stars lost defender Edwin Buliba in the 89th minute for a second bookable offense but they remained resolute in their defending to deny Gor an equalizer even with 7 minutes of added time.
This was the first win for City Stars this season while for Gor, it was the first defeat after winning their opening two games and drawing the third.
Gor Mahia are now 9th on the table standings with 7 points from 4 games while City Stars climbed to 14th with 5 points from 6 games. KCB are the current league leaders with 17 points from 7 games.