Back to drawing board for Aluoch and relegated Mathare

Three goals from former Harambee Starlets forward Lucy Mukhwana and one each for Siliya Rasoha and Emily Egesa gave Ulinzi Starlets a 6-1 win over Mathare Women, effectively sending them to the division one women's league. 

Fighting a battle of their own, to maintain second place on the Women Premier League (WPL) zone A league, Ulinzi wasted no time in making their presence known as Mukhwana opened the scoring in the fifth minute. 

She added a second in the 13th minute, as Mathare's defence found the going tough against a Ulinzi attacking line up that had former national team player Neddy Atieno and Rasoha who had made Charles Okere's provisional team for the upcoming Africa Women's Cup of Nations (AWCON) qualifiers, but has since been dropped. 

Three minutes after he second goal, Mukhwana was at it again, this time round getting to the end of a well delivered cross from the right flank to head home for a hat-trick and give the military side a huge 3-0 advantage. She again tapped in a loose ball on the penalty box in the 22nd minute for break the Mathare squad that was struggling to get their hands on the ball.

The Joseph Mwanza-coached side was not done yet as Rasoha added a fifth in the 36th minute. The Mathare goalkeeper had make a good effort of punching out Neddy's attempt at goal but the ball landed in front of Rasoha who wasted no time in slotting in back in for the march to head to the breather with the soldiers leading 5-0. 

On resumption, Mathare dictated action on the pitch as Ulinzi chose to take a back seat and only keep their goal post safe. Second half substitute Agesa, however, made it 6-0 in the 60th. Gladys Akoth, scored a master class for Mathare in the 87th minute but it was a little too late for the slum girls to salvage the game as the match ended 6-1in favour of the soldiers. 

"Despite the loss, I am impressed by how my players executed plays today against an opponent as tough as Ulinzi are. Getting a goal against them shows growth considering we conceded more goals in our first leg encounter without a reply. The changes we made in the second half made a bit of a difference but we spend the first half trying to learn their game hence the better second half," offered Aluoch who was handling the team as the head coach for the first time. 

Mathare are yet to face Thika Queens, Gaspo Women and Zetech Sparks and coach Aluoch believes the players have picked valuable lessons from the Ulinzi match which they will use in the remaining fixtures. 

"We needed to win this match to keep our survival chances but with this result, we will now focus on rebuilding the team. The remaining three fixtures will begin our rebuilding journey since we have nothing else to play for this season. We will, however, strive to finish the league strongly as that will give us confidence to get back to the Premier league as soon as possible," added Aluoch. 

Meanwhile, coach Mwanza says with the game already in the bag in the first half, his approach in the second half was to avoid contact at all cost and preserve their energy for upcoming fixtures.

"There was no need to pick injuries and exert ourselves in the second half so we slowed the game down and I made changes to rest some players who had gone all out in the first half. The game plan was to protect the the three points and avoid any unnecessary injuries. We are happy for the points. Our focus now is getting ready for the playoffs without losing sight of the remaining fixtures," he offered.