A question of accent

On Monday, his assistant Lloyd Chitembwe did most of the talking from the touchline as the side man­aged to register their first win of the season with a 1-0 victory over Quela­ton at the National Sports Stadium.
Connor — who is eager to see a change of fortunes at the Green Machine — said at yesterday’s Press conference that it appears the players may get his instructions better in the vernacular through Chitembwe.
Connor speaks with an Irish accent, which may be difficult for some people to understand.
“I talked to Lloyd on the bench and he gave the instructions to the players in Shona. Maybe the players didn’t quite get me because of my accent. I don’t know,” said Connor.
The Northern Irishman also said that he is targeting a new striker to reinforce his side’s misfiring forward line when the mid-season transfer window opens next month.
Connor, who has had a disap­pointing campaign at the Green Machine to date, yesterday revealed he is not amused by his strikeforce’s bluntness and is considering beefing up that department.
Makepekepe have managed to score twice in 540 minutes of Pre­miership action and are currently wallowing deep in the bottom half of the table with almost a quarter of the season gone. 
However, the Northern Irish men­tor maintains the poor start has not offset the goals he set himself at the beginning of the year and is hoping that the campaign gets back in the right track following the victory over Quelaton.
Attacking midfielder Rahman Kutsanzira scored the goal that brought relief to the CAPS United family whose morale had been weighed down by the lack of positive results.
Earlier this year the CAPS United management had said that they would not consider buying new play­ers in June as they hoped to soldier on with the resources at their dis­posal.
But with revelations that they have a depleted squad of 22 players regis­tered at the Premier Soccer League and with Connor eager to beef up his strikeforce the club would need to consider bringing in at least one player.
Makepekepe had also pinned their hopes on former Monomotapa striker Darryl Nyandoro and mid­fielder Chris Samakwere but were let down by the duo who have since returned to their club TP Mazembe after misrepresenting their cases at the Harare giants that they were free agents and signing on at the begin­ning of the year.
Connor said besides buying a new striker, CAPS United would also consider players from their junior structures.   
“We want to strengthen the squad in June and the position that we want is the strikeforce. There are certain players that we are looking at but we have to look at the finances as well.
“We are also looking at the juniors and would like to involve two or three players from there,” said Con­nor.
CAPS are currently 11th in the league race with eight points. They have won once on the field of play and are set to get another three points without shedding sweat when the Premier Soccer League rule on their abandoned match against Motor Action.
The PSL Disciplinary Committee was expected to deliberate on the matter yesterday.
But what has been more disturbing for the Makepekepe family is their wastefulness in front of goal, which has prompted Connor to cast his net in search of a new striker. 
“Obviously it’s frustrating because everyday we work on finishing, on individual performances and on combinations but when it comes to the game people just freeze.
“We are searching and I think we need a striker. We want somebody who is able to take the half chances. If we can get such a person that will be fine because we are solid at the back.
“But what we need at the moment is for Evans (Gwekwerere) and Washington (Pakamisa) to score goals and kind of get them going.”
Connor believes there is hope for the team following the win over Que­laton.
If the PSL confirm the walkover over Motor Action, it means Makepekepe would be trailing log leaders Highlanders by eight points.
They face Blue Rangers hoping for another victory at Gwanzura tomor­row.
“Yes the win (against Quelaton) does ease pressure but we told the players afterwards that it wasn’t enough and we must not relax. We need to keep working hard and we aim to win again against Blue Rangers. If we win back to back it will go a long way to raise the players’ confidence. Our performance on Monday was probably the best in our previous three games.
“The back four was pleasing in that it was compact and the communica­tion was so good that we limited Quelaton to half chances,” said Con­nor.