Bamusi relishes

Ray Bande Mutare Bureau
DIMINUTIVE former Buffaloes winger Phineus Bamusi, who is now a regular in the CAPS United starting line-up, says his team might be down, but it’s not out of the race for the Castle Lager Premiership championship.

He believes they have moved past the turbulence that had hit their plane in a tough defence of their title.

CAPS United finally remembered how it feels to win a match when they edged ZPC Kariba thanks to a wonder strike by Dominic Chungwa just after the hour mark at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.

The Green Machine heaved a huge sigh of relief after Lloyd Chitembwe’s men had gone for five matches without a win in the league, losing four of those matches and drawing one.

CAPS United will have little time to celebrate that victory against ZPC Kariba as they now have to shift their focus to the midweek assignment against Tsholotsho in Beitbridge before returning home to face high-riding Ngezi Platinum on Sunday.

But with all the pressure on them to reproduce the form they displayed last season, it took stocky striker Chungwa, who has his fair share of critics at the Green Machine, to produce the magic and power his team to victory.

Bamusi, who was born and bred in Mutare’s sprawling suburb of Dangamvura, feels the win against ZPC Kariba was a crucial turning point that has helped rebuild confidence at the club.

“The win against ZPC Kariba was very important. It was a crucial win for us because it was just more than three points. We desperately needed to win it,’’ he said.

“Apart from the three points in the bag, it helped us regain our confidence.

“The onus is on us to keep collecting maximum points. We will go back and keep working hard. We need to collect more points and confront each game with three points in mind.’’

The former Mutare United player said the recent bad spell was now a thing of the past.

“Yes, we have gone through a bad spell. It was really a challenge for everyone in the team as we tried to find a winning formula but I am happy that we have finally struck the right chord.

“We are hopeful that we will maintain the winning formula and keep getting maximum points.

“We are down but we are not out as far as the race for the title is concerned. We are still in it and there is still everything to fight for.’’

The former Rujeko Primary and St Dominics High School pupil believes that the games in hand for CAPS United are tough but his team has what it takes to collect maximum points in most of them. CAPS United have six games in hand, including matches against FC Platinum, Black Rhinos, Highlanders, Hwange and Dynamos.