Kenya Hockey Union’s men’s premier league defending champions Butali Warriors settled for an uninspiring 2-2 draw with Strathmore Gladiators at the City Park Stadium at the weekend.

The match watched by new Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba lived to its billing with chances in the early exchanges few and far between.

Gladiators who were tottering on the relegation zone last week gave in as much as they received but profligacy in front of goal was their main undoing.

Meshack Senge’s charges proved worthy opponents and are now gunning to wind up at least in the top three positions.

They have now registered 18 points in fourth position ahead of fifth placed USIU-A who have one point less.

The table toppers Butali Warriors are still on the driving seat with 34 points and have trained their eyes on an improved performance after the dour show against Gladiators.

In the weekend match, Warriors grabbed a 2-0 lead courtesy of two field goals by scoring machine George Mutira in the 8th and 44th minutes respectively before Gladiators hit back with two strikes of courtesy of Keith Alusa and Brian Ongeche.

 In the other matches, Western Jaguars dispatched Sailors 2-0 to maintain their second place on the logs while Kenya Police earned a hard-fought 1-0 win over USIU-A 1-0 to remain third in the log.

Jaguars marksmen were Conrad Wafula and Dennis Ouma both of who were a thorn in the flesh of their opponents throughout the match.

In the meantime, Police needed Kennedy Salong’s strike to silence a gritty USIU-A.

Elsewhere, Strathmore Scorpions ladies maintained their unbeaten run with a 1-0 win over Lakers before adding the icing on the cake with a 3-1 victory over USIU-A.