FKF Premier League: Kimani raises concerns with Kenya Police’s form after Sofapaka draw
The law enforcers have been blowing hot and cold since their elimination from the CAF Confederation Cup. Police have played four matches, managing one win and three draws.
After their campaign in the inter-club competition ended in the second preliminary round after losing 3-1 on aggregate to Egyptian giants Zamalek, Police returned to league action where they started their campaign with a 1-1 draw against Tusker.
Police then battled to a 0-0 draw against Ulinzi Stars before registering their first victory - a 2-0 result - against Mathare United. On Wednesday, November 6th, they came up against Sofapaka.
In the fixture at Dandora Stadium, the law enforcers found themselves trailing with only eight minutes played when Joseph Kuloba took advantage of a goalkeeping blunder to score into an empty net.
Police then suffered a blow in the 54th minute when defender Aboud Omar was sent off. Playing with 10 men, Police battled hard to earn a draw courtesy of David Okoth, who finished off a cross from Kenneth Muguna.
Police form a worrying factor
Despite being among the two teams that are still unbeaten in the top flight, Kimani believes the team must start to win matches if they are to challenge for their first-ever league title.
“We want to win, we are not happy, we want to win, it is not a good start, winning one out of four is not satisfying so we want to win, and must work hard to win our next match,” Kimani told Flashscore. “We had several chances to score, I am happy we managed to come from a goal down to snatch a draw, my players had the belief we could go on and win the game but it never happened.”
Asked to review the outcome, Kimani, who announced his retirement from professional football on June 25th, 2023, said: “We were anticipating a tough game, Sofapaka is a good team, they came into this match having beaten Kakamega Homeboyz in their last match, they are in a good momentum but on our side, the boys looked rusty, we have no played for a while now.
“But what we have managed to get from this game is better than nothing, considering what happened in the game, being reduced to 10 men but the boys kept fighting to make sure we don’t lose all the three points.”
Asked his thoughts about Omar’s red card, Kimani said: “I always don’t like commenting about referees, but one thing I hope those, who are in charge of the referees are seeing what kind of job they are doing, they are the ones in a good position to correct them (referees) when they do mistakes, and give them thumbs up when they do a good job.
“For me I put focus on my team, how did we play, what did not work, which areas do we need to improve so that we get ready for our next game against Shabana.
“The referee has not told us why he decided to send Aboud (Omar) off but like I said, I don’t like commenting or talking about referees but we hope those in charge of the referees will talk about it.”
Kimani, who started off his football career at Dagoretti Santos then Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) in the Kenyan second tier before joining World Hope F.C. in the Kenyan Premier League in 2008, believes the red card denied his charges a chance to win the game.
“We lost two points in this game but the red card played a huge part in the outcome and we were playing against a very formidable side so we will take a point from it, we could have bagged three, but the boys put more effort to earn something from it even after going a man down, we had two good chances to win the game in the closing stages but we couldn’t find the target.”
Asked whether Police had missed the services of injured striker Jesse Were, Kimani said: “Jesee (Were) is a good player, we missed his services of course, he has an injury that has kept him out, but I also want to thank the players who came in, they did well.”
Police will next face Shabana at Gusii Stadium on Sunday, November 10th, and Kimani is anticipating a tough game against Tore Bobe.
“Against Shabana it will be crucial for us to win the game, we have played four matches and only won one, which is not good enough, we are hungry to register our second win of the season, it will be a difficult game, Shabana lost against Nairobi City Stars and will be keen to bounce back but we will do our best to get the points,” explained Kimani.
Sofapaka coach Robert Matano blamed the referee for the outcome saying his side should have carried the day with good officiating.
“We feel cheated because we were the better side throughout the match. The referee denied us victory but all the same, I am happy with the boys’ overall performance,” Matano told Flashscore. “My team really did well against Police that has very experienced players, while we have only Hum (Humphrey Mieno) as the most experienced player in the team.”
While Police have one win, Shabana are winless from their last six matches. They are languishing at the bottom of the 18-team league table with three points accumulated from three draws and three defeats.
