daniel chigunwe
Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter
JOEY has hailed his Chicken Inn players as brave fighters after the Bulawayo side took control of the Castle Lager Premiership race.
The Gamecocks returned from the lengthy festive holidays/AFCON break a fired up side and have won four straight games.
The 2-0 win over ZPC Kariba at Luveve on Sunday took them to 15 points, two ahead of second-placed Manica Diamonds.
“The boys are fighting hard,” said Antipas.
“There is always good spirit in the camp whenever a team is winning games. So this has helped us a lot. We just wish to maintain the spirit in the camp. It improves confidence and we look forward to more good performances from these guys.”
New boy Brian Muza, who has now scored five goals in six outings, sealed the victory on Sunday with a powerful grounder.
Veteran defender Moses Jackson had opened the scoring in the second half, as the Gamecocks recovered from a difficult start, the same way they did when they defeated giants Dynamos at the National Sports Stadium last week.
The Gamecocks, who won their only league title back in 2015, had started off the campaign with a limp. But they appear to have done good business during the current window when they brought in the likes of midfielder Richard Hachiro from CAPS United and Malvin Hwata from Cranborne Bullets and Denzel Khumalo from champions FC Platinum.
But it is Muza, who was plucked from Division One side, Talen Vision, who has brought so much joy to Antipas.
“Muza is doing well. We saw this guy for the first time when he was playing in Division One at Talen Vision. He was part of our team when we travelled to Malawi for pre-season training camp (in January 2020) but then Covid-19 struck.
“He was struggling a bit when he came here but I can say now he is picking up form. He has so much energy. He is the type of player that can run the whole 90 minutes without showing signs of fatigue,” said Antipas.
“I also think we recruited some good players during the transfer period and these guys are doing quite well. If you look at a player like Richard Hachiro, he is now approaching his best football; Muza is scoring for fun and Malvin Hwata is playing good football although he is still to open his scoring account. Then Denzel is yet to be fully match fit but he will get there soon.
“So I think we are coming up as a team although we still need to work more. We also switched our formation a bit and it has been working well for us of late,” said Antipas.
Chicken Inn are set to face Harare City in their next match at the National Sports Stadium this Saturday. Early pace setters Manica Diamonds dropped into second place following the 1-1 draw with Yadah on Saturday.
Online Reporter