After finding themselves in a familiar position that they would not want to be associated with, Mathare United take on Ulinzi Stars this afternoon at Thika Stadium in an attempt to change the narrative.Mathare lost by three goals in their league opener against Bandari FC at Mbaraki, a result that saw them remain rooted at the bottom of the log on the first day, a position they had been accustomed to for the better part of the previous season.On the other hand, Ulinzi started off on the right foot with a win against Nzoia Sugar and will be seeking to build on that as they also seek to avoid last season’s woes that saw them have a bad half of the season marred mostly by draws. Ulinzi’s major undoing in the last campaign was lack of goals and the acquisition of Hillary Simiyu from Nzoia is expected to seal that gap, while that of defender Kevin Ouma is expected to boost their defensive prowess.Ouma already played full minutes in the season opener, producing a man-of-the-match performance and is set to be a key player in that backline if he continues with such a performance.With the first match results not impressive enough for the Slum Boys, Ezekiel Akwana is adamant that they have had enough time from the international break to work on their errors and is promising that there will be noticeable changes both in the performance and in the personnel deployed against Ulinzi, and going forward in general.”We didn’t get off on the right foot with our game against Bandari, but the last three weeks have enabled us to see and work on our mistakes from that game and I know for a fact that we will see a whole different team against Ulinzi, both performance-wise and personnel-wise. After a difficult 2020/21 season, it is imperative that we start getting on the winning side as soon as possible and avoid going down the same path as we did last season,” Akwana said.Mathare have lost a couple of good players who helped them stay up last season including Tyson Otieno and David Cheche Ochieng but their exit has been replaced with a couple of more experienced players that Akwana has been checking out throughout the break.This clash proved important for Mathare last season as they won by a solitary goal to confirm their FKFPL status for yet another season at Ruaraka Grounds and will want to use it to kick start their winning streak.The match kicks off at 3:15 PM.
