APR FC survived an early scare to put five past Marines FC in a Rwandan Premier League fixture which ended 5-2 in favour of the army club at Kigali Pele Stadium on Wednesday.

It took just a minute for Marines to find the back of the net through a fabulous finish from attacker Raul Vyamunaj. The early goal unsettled APR as they began to chase the game.

Skipper Claude Niyomugabo, deployed in a central midfield, started spraying passes to every corner of the field but Sharaf Shaiboub, who was in an improvised central striking role, had his efforts thwarted by the impressive Marines back four.

Marines had the ball at the back of the net again in the 35 minute through Olivier Usabimana but it was disallowed after goalkeeper Pavelh Ndzila was fouled in the visitors’ attacking action.

The APR fans were not happy with the performance of their players and started chants aimed at calling for Thierry Froger to be sacked.

Shaiboub had a glorious chance to restore parity for APR in the 40th minute after being beautifully set up by Alain Kwitonda Bacca but his effort narrowly missed the post. Kwitonda finally pulled even for APR in the 43rd minute as he outran his marker and connected excellently from a Gilbert Mugisha low cross.

The result saw the military side maintain their six-point lead with 42 points ahead of second-placed Rayon Sports who have 36 points after beating Amagaju 1-0 at Huye Stadium through midfielder Kevin Muhire.

– Additional information New Times.