•10-man Blues put three past taxi-men

Yesterday
Rayon Sport 3-0 Atraco

Saturday’s results

APR  4-1 AS Kigali
Mukura  0-1 Kiyovu
Etincelles 2-1 Marines
Electrogaz 2-1 Musanze
Police  1-0 Amagaju

Ten-man Rayon Sport put aside their off-field problems temporarily as they thrashed 2009 Kagame Cup winners Atraco 3-0 in a top of the table national league clash yesterday at Nyamirambo stadium.

Pappy Gasana opened the scoring for the Blues on 13th minute; Peter Kagabo scored the second goal against his former club on 26th minute and Yussuf Ndayishimiye sealed the emphatic win on 84th minute to end the taxi-men’s run of five matches unbeaten.

Jean Baptiste Kayiranga’s team, despite their well documented off-field troubles never looked like a team in crisis as they put on their best performance of the season thus far.

Gasana converted a penalty after Atraco’s Arafat Serugendo fouled Kagabo in the penalty area giving no option for referee Hudu Munyemana but to point to the spot.

Kagabo showed Sam Timbe that it was a big mistake to let him go during the last transfer window when he dribbled past Alimansi Kadogo to easily beat Alex Ganza in goal for Atraco.

However, Kagabo turned from hero to villain when he sent off for a second bookable offence against Serugendo, to leave his coach with some tactical changes to make.

With 25 minutes to go, Atraco goalkeeper Ganza was also given marching orders by Munyemana for handling the ball outside his goal area.

Djamar Mwiseneza ran past Amani Uwilingiyimana and tried to loop the advancing Ganza and in the process the former Mukura custodian punched the ball with his hands promoting the referee to show him a straight red.

At this point, Timbe had already made all his three substitutions after he had brought on Perchy Bawuma for Kadogo, Hamis Kitagenda for Aime Kabula and Ismail Habumugisha for Daddy Birori.

The Ugandan born tactician opted to employ left-winger Bawuma in the goal and the latter went to make a fine save from Aphrodis Hategikimana’s goal-bound free-kick.

But due to his inexperience in goal, the fullback was at fault for Rayon’s third goal.

Ndayishimiye, who substituted Gasana, looped Bawuma who had left the goal to clear a set-piece but stopped halfway to allow the advancing Amavubi Stars leading marksman at the 2009 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, to find the back of the net so easily.

The win propelled Rayon to fourth position, level with APR and Atraco on 13 points. The three leading title contenders are only separated by goal difference.

Etincelles set early pace

Early season surprise package, Etincelles lead the table standing on 16 points with a record of five wins and a draw from six rounds of matches.

The youthful side continued their early season fine form, beating their local rivals Marines 2-1 in a Gisenyi derby at Umuganda stadium on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Labama Bokota scored two and made two as the champions, APR overcame AS Kigali 4-1 at Nyamirambo stadium. Kabange Twite scored the other two.

Ends