Pinchez brace helps City Stars sink poor Mathare United

Peter 'Pinchez' Opiyo rolled back the years as he scored two beautiful goals to give Nairobi City Stars a 0-2 victory against Mathare United in a Saturday league match played at Ruaraka Grounds.

Having not won in their previous two matches before the encounter, City Stars were looking to jump into a momentary second position with a win and they did just that courtesy of help from the experienced midfielder.

"That was a good performance from the team today with two brilliant goals from Pinchez. It was made even better with the disciplined and solid showing defensively and I think it is a good plus for us going into our next match," Nicholas Muyoti, City Stars head coach remarked after the game.

"We played this game without training at all because of the way our fixtures were organized. I really cannot fault the boys at all because of a lot of challenges. They tried pushing in the second half but it was not to be," Ezekiel Akwana noted of his Mathare side.

Caution was the order of the day as the game unwrapped in the opening ten minutes, both sides getting their equal share of possession but neither of them posing any serious threat in the final third.

On the 13th minute, it is City Stars who however showed the earliest glimpse of their intent when they sprung foward on the counter after some period of dominant possession by the slum boys.

The ball found its way to Ezekiel Odera who unleashed a powerfully hit shot on goal that forced a sharp fingertip save from Mathare's goalkeeper Bryne Omondi who turned the ball over the crossbar for City Stars first corner of the game. Fortunately for Mathare, that passage of play was rendered harmless as City Stars did not make anything of the set piece.

Five minutes after, City Stars made true their threat when they were handed another set piece chance. From a free kick just outside the box that was directly on goal, the experience of Pinchez came to the fore as he curled in a sumptuous free kick past the scrambling Bryne in the Mathare goal to give City Stars the lead in the match.

That opening goal appeared to have sapped energy from Mathare who's body language changed compared to how he started.

On the stroke of the half hour mark, City Stars thought they had the second goal of the game when Salim 'Shitu' Abdalla pushed the ball into the back of the net but his rebound from Pinchez's free kick that had come off the upright was ruled out for offside.

Still, there was no reaction from Akwana's Mathare and City Stars took advantage with fifteen minutes left before the half time break as Pinchez bagged his brace in doubling the team's advantage.

On the left side of the box, the former Gor Mahia man made a sweet turn in the area before firing into the keeper's left as he wheeled off in celebration for his second goal.

On the other hand, Mathare were staring straight into a sixth defeat in nine games as they struggled to create anything meaningful in the final third.

On the stroke of half time, Alphonce Ndonye tried to get them going but his powerful strike on goal was just too centrally placed as Jacob Osano collected easily in the City Stars goal, the game going into the break with the slum boys trailing by the two goals.

Unlike the action packed first half, the second failed to get any real bite especially in front of goal. City Stars, having the comfort of the two goal cushion, did not offer cutting edge as they could afford room to take their foot off the pedal.

Mathare on the other hand, try as they may, just lacked the creative nous to split open the City Stars backline who proved resolute, in the end the game ending 0-2 at full time.