Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Captain Festus Onyango scored two quick goals in the opening quarter as 2016 champions Strathmore University Gladiators sent Sikh Union to relegation, in a Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) Premier League match at the City Park Stadium on Saturday.

A lot was at stake for the two former winners who have flirted with relegation for the larger part of the season, in the end, it was Meshark Senge’s side who carried the day against a team comprising more than half of his former players.

Onyango’s field goals were enough to send the side formerly known as Nairobi Simba to the National Super League. Captain Haggai Pepela’s strike from a penalty corner in the second quarter was only a consolation.

Significant results

Gladiators, Sikh Union and Parklands were in the relegation dogfight and were separated by one point at the bottom end going to the weekend encounter. Gladiators moved to 13 points after their most significant result of the season. Sikh is still on nine points going to the final match of the season with their fate having been sealed.

Parklands, who had already been relegated are rooted bottom and suffered a 2-0 defeat to champions Butali Warriors on Saturday.

Former Sikh Union and Kenyan national team captain Inderjit Matharu , says the former powerhouse needs to go back to the drawing board to revive the club’s status. 

“I said as a club we need to go back to do an assessment and find out where and when the rain started beating us. There are no enough facilities to help nurture talents. It is sad to see this great club getting relegated,”Matharu talked of Sikh which has in the past produced 26 Olympics players.

Senge said the team will now head to the United States International University Africa (USIU-Africa) match without pressure.