Longest-serving Nairobi City Stars player and overall team captain Calvin Apollo Masawa has taken a look at the team’s just-concluded season in the top flight, highlighting the highs and the lows of the campaign for Simba wa Nairobi after they returned to since going down in 2016.In their return season, City Stars managed to finish eighth on the log with 45 points and even set a record for the club – five straight wins.Given the circumstances under which the campaign unfolded, Masawa termed it excellent and added that they had managed to surpass their target in the league as they only aimed at surviving relegation.He went ahead to eulogize Pudo Neville, a long-time servant of City Stars who died last year in December, saying that his demise hit the club hard.“The season was excellent given that we just got promoted from the second tier to KPL and finished seventh. That was a great achievement. When we started the season, our sole aim was to survive relegation so anything beyond that was a bonus. The season had so many challenges due to COVID-19 impact with all the restrictions, protocols and empty stadiums. Everything was never normal at all,” “To make it even tougher on us we lost our able Team Manager Mr Neville Pudo. May his soul rest in peace. That hit us hard being that he was a father figure to us. But we recollected ourselves and pushed on even harder,” Masawa told the club’s portal.DOUBLE SUBSTITUTIONNicholas Kipkirui OUTEdwin Buliba OUTEzekiel Odera INCalvin Masawa IN#𝕊𝕚𝕞𝕓𝕒𝕎𝕒ℕ𝕒𝕚𝕣𝕠𝕓𝕚— Official Nairobi City Stars Fc (@NrbCityStars) June 30, 2021 Masawa noted that the support from the management has been immense and has added oomph to the team in a season that has been marred with unending uncertainties.The former Migori Youth player also acknowledged that the level of competition in the league has been a notch high despite the many challenges that faced the teams.“With the financial support and motivation from our management, we competed and even fought hard. It is our hope that next new season everything will be normal, and we are looking to better our seventh-place finish. The season was even more interesting being that every team was very competitive. It was full of surprises and very unpredictable since no team was guaranteed an easy win against any opponent, so that needed extra effort and a bit of luck for a team to win a match,” he added.31’| Sub @NrbCityStars Masawa Calvins in for an Injured WycliffeMathare 1-0 City Stars#FKFPL pic.twitter.com/xxFgAeMeho— FKF Premier League (@Officialfkfpl) August 7, 2021 The utility player only played in three games this season but featured prominently on the bench.📈|League StandingsChampions – @tusker_fc Relagated- @WesternStima_fc Playoffs- @VihigaUnitedFC #FKFPL pic.twitter.com/r2lHVnlb1M— FKF Premier League (@Officialfkfpl) August 22, 2021
