FC Talanta maintain push higher the log with win over Wazito

FC Talanta’s push to climb up the Football Kenya Federation Premier League were boosted after Ken Kenyatta’s charges beat relegation-threatened Wazito in a rescheduled round 27 league match played at the Kasarani Annex grounds.

The match was originally scheduled for Saturday but was postponed by 48 hours after home side Wazito failed to secure a venue in Nairobi.
Talanta won the match 2 – 0, courtesy of second-half goals by Edwin Lavatsa and Dennis Oalo to hold their grip on the ninth position with 39 points, four ahead of giants AFC Leopards who have played a game less than Talanta.

It was a game of two halves, the first ending in a barren stalemate. Wazito dominated possession but failed to make that count while Talanta, the away team on the day, sitting back and soaking up the pressure and trying to break their opponents’ back on the counter.

However, the second half saw a hungrier Talanta side get their reward on 65 minutes when Edwin Lavatsa got his fifth goal of the season when he broke the deadlock. Dennis Oalo, who joined Talanta from Posta Rangers, then stole the ball from a deficient back pass to put the game beyond Wazito with the second goal on the 87th minute.
Alvin Ochieng’ was involved in Lavatsa’s goal, intercepting Wazito midfielder Fidel Origa’s diagonal pass to send Lavatsa through and the striker kept his cool to slot the ball home past Wazito goalkeeper Adisa Omar for the lead.

It was a similar situation for the second goal, Oalo stealing possession when defender Dennis Nandwa back pass failed to reach Adisa and beat the goalkeeper to score the winner.
Talanta have bagged the same number of points (39) as Posta Rangers and KCB, who have superior goal differences occupying eighth and seventh positions respectively.
Coach Ken Kenyatta was delighted with the win, admitting they won against a Wazito side that had much of the ball possession.

“It was a game which was very difficult to unlock because they possessed the ball while we opted for counter-attack and missed some good goal-scoring opportunities,” Kenyatta told the media after the match.
“However, after we broke the deadlock, we emerged the better side and would have won by a bigger margin.”