Antipas lashes out at his players

Fungai Muderere, Senior Sports Reporter
FOLLOWING their humbling 0-3 loss to Whawha at Ascot Stadium on Saturday, an upset Chicken Inn head coach Joey Antipas lashed out at his players for “embarrassing” the Gamecocks’ badge.

While Whawha followers and sympathisers deservedly erupted in ecstasy on that chilly and drizzling Saturday afternoon when referee Happy Mabhena blew the final whistle, a sombre silence embraced the Gamecocks’ camp.

Substitute Tineyi Chitora found the opener for Whawha in the 20th minute with his first touch of the game. Chitora was introduced for injured Dibbella Mapuwa in the 16th minute.

Raymond Horonga made it two for Whawha five minutes after the breather. It was a goal that the Chicken Inn camp disputed, arguing that it was cleared off the line by defender Xolani Ndlovu. However, referee Mabhena was in agreement with his second assistant Salani Ncube to allow the goal to stand.

At a time when the Gamecocks kept pressing for a goal, pacey Whawha forward Jayden Barake made it three for the hosts in the 85th minute after he got the better of Moses Jackson in a one-on-one situation and let loose a glorious shot that beat a badly exposed Donovan Bernard in goals for the visitors.

“You are an embarrassment to yourselves. With such quality in you, you didn’t deserve that result. Do you think we deserved this? I could not even walk in confidence. I walked with my face down,” said Antipas.

In the build-up to the match, Antipas had insisted on the need to guard against complacency, telling his charges to beware of the danger of undermining the prison wardens because of the position they were occupying on the log Whawah are the bottom side.

“We were taken to the cleaners. We conceded soft goals from defensive errors. We did not pitch up. We warned the boys about issues to do with attitude and they spoiled our party. We plotted our own downfall. It was great work from Whawha. They wanted it more than us,” Antipas said.

He was also concerned that they had let in six goals in two consecutive matches.

Before their 3-0 drubbing by Whawha, the former league champions played to a three-all draw against Manica Diamonds
The Gamecocks are now tied on 23 points with Dynamos, who played a nil-all draw against Benjani Mwaruwari mentored Ngezi Platinum Stars.

High riding DeMbare now sit at the top of the league table, courtesy of a superior goal difference of +9 compared to Chicken Inn’s +7.