Nairobi — Tusker FC skipper Humphrey Mieno was left seething at what he termed as dubious officiating as the brewers lost 1-0 to Nzoia Sugar in Bungoma on Saturday, seeing Gor Mahia move back to the top of the standings.
Gor won by a similar margin against Kenya Police FC in Nairobi, meaning they moved to top spot, two points ahead of the brewers.
Tusker scored what looked like an 84th minute equalizer, but the referee chalked off the goal headed home by Jackson Macharia for an apparent foul on the keeper, who had clashed against his own teammate.
"We were a bit unlucky infront of goal and also the officiating today was dubious. But, we will keep fighting. There were so many positives to pick from the game today and we will not put our heads down," the experienced midfielder noted.
The game had been delayed by 45 minutes due to heavy rains that rocked the Western Kenya town and when it finally kicked off, there was immense action at a fully packed stadium.
Tusker had been off to a good start and had several chances with crosses off the left, but Eric Otieno and Lawrence Luvanda could not hit the target.
The home side got into the lead after 23 minutes from the penalty spot when Hassan Beja was brought down inside the box by keeper Brian Bwire and James Kibande stepped up to convert.
Tusker put in the effort to try and get back into the game and towards the end of the half had two chances with David Odoyo shooting over while Luvanda had an effort with a connection at the backpost go just wide.
In the second half, Tusker made changes with Jackson macharia, Deogratious Ojok, Stewart Omondi and Shami Mwinyi all coming in for Luvanda, Otieno, Shaphan Oyugi and Mike Otieno.
The changes added some punch into the Tusker forward line and Shami almost made an immediate impact when he took a shot from distance but it was deflected wide for a corner.
With six minutes to go, Tusker scored what they thought was an equalizer by Macharia, but much to the dismay of the players and technical bench, the goal was ruled out.
Macharia had a golden chance in added time when he picked up the ball unmarked from inside the box, but his shot was well saved by Humphrey Katasi in the Nzoia goal.
