AFC Leopards coach Fred Ambani was critical of the Awendo Stadium playing surface after the club succumbed to their first loss of the 25/26 SportPesa League season against Mara Sugar.
In his post-match press conference, Ambani noted the poor state of the playing surface may have played a part in AFC Leopards‘ defeat.
“As I said before at the start, the field itself is not up to standard. You cannot do what you had planned on this surface. Even stringing two or three passes together becomes difficult,” he stated.
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Leopards were without the services of defenders Vincent Mahiga and Randy Bakari who were forced out with illness, with Emmanuel Lwangu and Rami Coulibaly making their first starts of the season in place of the two.
“We missed Mahiga and Bakari, who are sick, so we made some changes in the backline. Two players came in, and I can say it also affected our game plan, but we are glad not to have gotten any injuries today,” Ambani explained.
On the substitutions, Ambani says it’s unfortunate that it didn’t work out this time.
“We conceded twice from our right side after withdrawing Brian Ojok, but we can’t really say it’s a bad thing because several times we made the substitution and it paid off,” he said.
Prior to this match, Leopards had gone a streak of fourteen matches without defeat. They were also just one of the two unbeaten teams in the 2025/26 Sportpesa League season alongside Kenya Police.
The defeat leaves them in fourth place with twelve points collected from their opening seven fixtures of the season, with three wins, three draws and one loss.
The league now proceeds on a two-week hiatus to pave way for the FIFA International break, after which the twelve-time champions will play against Kariobangi Sharks before facing Gor Mahia in the first leg of the highly anticipated Mashemeji Derby on November 30.
