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Eddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
CHICKEN Inn coach Joey Antipas has challenged his players to keep focused following a good start to the season.
The Gamecocks kept their campaign firmly on course when they beat hosts FC Platinum 3-1 at the weekend to take their points tally to 12 from five games.
Veteran midfielder Clement Matawu, Devine Lunga and George Majika scored in the last 25 minutes of the game to cancel out Donald Ngoma’s 62nd minute lead for FC Platinum.
Antipas yesterday praised his charges for their strong fighting spirit.
“I give credit to the players. They came up with a big fight in the face of adversity. These guys showed character because after going 0-1 down in the first half they still managed to come back and win the game.
“It was a great show of character and it’s also good to see that we are headed in the right direction. These guys are giving it 100 percent at training and I think it makes it easy for us in game situation.
“But we should keep our feet on the ground because it’s still early days in the season. There is still a long way to go,” said Antipas.
A good run of four wins from five games can make any coach feel satisfied with his team’s performance and the Chicken Inn head of technical department is happy that they are keeping pace with the top teams Triangle and Dynamos who have 13 points each. Antipas attributed their good run to a well planned pre-season.
“I think we had a very good pre-season and we managed to bring in some new players like Mitchell Katsvairo, Tafadzwa Kutinyu and Edmore Chirambadare.
“These guys are really standing up to be counted,” said Antipas.
Chicken Inn are third on the league table. Apart from the top three, no other team in the top eight, going into the weekend games managed to win a match. How Mine, ZPC Kariba, Highlanders, CAPS United and Harare City all dropped points.
Newboys Tsholotsho FC grabbed the opportunity to barge into the top half with a crucial away victory when they beat fellow league debutants Whawha 2-0 at Ascot.
With two wins in the bag, Lizwe Sweswe’s men are the only side among the newly promoted sides that has managed to win to date.
They move into eighth place with six points while Dongo Sawmill, Flame Lily and Whawha are still win-less and anchor the table with two points each from five starts.
Hwange and Buffaloes, who played a goalless draw at the Colliery on Sunday, are also still to register victories and they have three points apiece while trouble is slowly brewing at Highlanders who lost to Chapungu.
Online Reporter