Summary The two-time champions now have 43 points from 20 matches.
MOSCOW (AFP) - Lokomotiv Moscow took a two-point lead at the top of the Russian Premier League on Monday with a 2-1 win over Samara.
The two-time champions now have 43 points from 20 matches, two ahead of the second-placed Zenit St Petersburg, with Moscow rivals Spartak third on 39.
Lokomotiv looked in command from the start and took the lead in the 18th minute through Senegalese forward Dame N Doye, who netted his 11th goal of the season with a close-range header from Vitaly Denisov s cross from the left.
Substitute Magomed Ozdoev made it 2-0 in the 77th minute with a low shot from just outside the box before Samara s Belarus international midfielder Stanislav Dragun scored a consolation goal from 22 metres with three minutes to go.
"We have done a great ammount of work in the winter break and it paid off as we looked the better side and won deservedly today," Lokomotiv manager Leonid Kuchuk said.
"We scored in the first half and kept the play after the break under control. We didn t allow our opponents to create any chances before the 87th minute when they scored courtesy of the individual skills of Dragun.
"But we took the initiative back right after that and managed to avoid a nervous ending."
In Monday s other match, Amkar Perm thrashed Volga Nizhny Novgorod 5-1, with two goals from Nigerian midfielder Fedor Ogude, to move up to sixth, level on points with FC Krasnodar.
"We played really well before the break," Amkar head coach Stanislav Cherchesov said.
"In the second half we have lost control on the play and could pay the price for it. Luckily, we managed to score the third goal, which decided the match."
