Bungoma-based Rangers are capable of making a top-six finish in the Kenya Handball Federation (KHF) league despite challenges facing the team, coach Mussah Ndombi has said.

Speaking after his boys had won three of their four weekend league matches, Ndombi said he was happy with the results despite bringing just eight players to the city for the league matches due to limited resources.

“So far so good. Everything went so well. I am happy with the results the boys posted. Despite many challenges, we will continue to perform to the best of our ability,” added Ndombi.

“We managed to raise fares for only eight players to travel to Nairobi. It is not easy being a self-supporting team as there are many challenges from finances to being able to train together.

He went on: “In our first game, we were hit by three red cards which made it difficult for us to operate well against our opponents. To be a complete team, you need strong bench power to battle the top.”

Ndombi remains convinced Rangers have the players capable of easily snatching a slot in the Super Cup at the end of the season if they continue to perform like they did.

“If we can train together as a team it will be easy to build cohesion. But we have players training in three different venues and only come together during league matches.” 

“It’s difficult for any coach to parade players for a match and yet they have not trained together. In our case, I use the first game to assess them as we go long,” he revealed.

In their last fixture on Sunday, before they hit the long road home, Rangers blanked Daystar University 32-26 after trailing 14-13 to the students at the break.

Douglas Wekesa grabbed eight goals, Joshua Simiyu had seven and Dalmas Simiyu added six. The varsity side had nine from Amos Okwako, Andew Obukai had five and William Oduor contributed four.

Rangers also pipped Engineers 35-32, beat Wakanda 38-29 but fell 39-26 to Equity Bank.

Rangers are sixth on the 23-team log with six points, four behind leaders General Service Unit (GSU).