Sharks look to make up ground on KPL leaders

Kariobangi Sharks will look to make up ground on the leaders in the Kenya Premier League when they host Western Stima in a round seven clash at the Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos on Sunday, 13 January 2019, kick-off at 14h00 CAT.

Sharks come into the match having made a solid if unspectacular start to the 2018/19 KPL season. The Nairobi team is undefeated in their six league matches thus far, but have seen their progress stalled by recording four draws in the sequence.

Kariobangi’s last outing was a 1-1 draw away to KCB on January 6 – a third stalemate from their last four league matches, and a stretch in which they have scored just three goals.

Coach William Muluya has declared that his team can be considered contenders for the league title, but they’ll need to start scoring with more regularity if they are to make up the four-point gap between themselves and current pace-setters Mathare United.

Western Stima have no such problems to worry about: they are level on points with Mathare after a fine start to the campaign, and only an inferior goal difference sees them ranked second instead of sitting at the top of the log.

Their last outing was a 1-0 win away to Chemelil Sugar last weekend, though it certainly wasn’t a game which went all their own way: coach Paul Ogai has rained praise down on goalkeeper Samuel Odhiambo for a superb individual performance which helped earn the three points.

In head-to-head terms, Sharks and Stima have met in just two previous matches since 2017 (when the latter earned their most recent promotion back to the top flight) and the Kariobangi team boasts an unbeaten record, with one win and one draw.

The teams’ most recent meeting was a KPL clash in August 2017 which was won 1-0 by Sharks.

Sharks v Stima – Head-to-head, all competitions since 2017

Matches played 2

Sharks wins 1

Stima wins 0

Draws 1

Last five results (League only, most recent first)

Sharks | D | D | W | D | W
Stima | W | D | D | W | W