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Fungai Muderere
FIVE points from a possible total of 24 points is not good for a team that is nearing 100 years of existence!
Highlanders are in dire need of help after watching them stretch their winless start to the Castle Lager Premiership to eight games following their nil-all home draw against Herentals last weekend.
The curse afflicting Highlanders is largely its impotence upfront, as the frontline simply can’t convert opportunities they create.
This has not gone down well with hordes of Bosso followers. Their former players and coaches alike feel Highlanders, a club that has a reputation and has a long and illustrious history as the oldest club in Zimbabwean football, should not be second from the bottom.
While some have been swift to find a scapegoat claiming that the team “has been cursed”, the club’s ex-player and gaffer Rahman Gumbo thinks otherwise.
“We cannot talk about a curse. The club now just needs to hire psychologists who will talk to the players. The players now have a low self-esteem; they now don’t have the confidence. Psychologists can help them rediscover themselves. We have seen it that they can’t just play to their full potential even at home.
During our playing days we could have hammered a team like Herentals by a rugby scoreline at Barbourfields Stadium,” said Gumbo, a multiple championship winning coach.
For their week nine fixture, Bosso take on unpredictable Premier Soccer League newbies TelOne at Barbourfields Stadium. The fixture will see the return of ex Bosso player Joel Luphahla, now technical manager at TelOne, seeking to haunt his former paymasters.
As if that will not be enough, Highlanders former striker Tafadzwa “V11” Sibanda will be facing his struggling ex-club for the first time in his career.
Red-hot Chicken Inn will on Saturday welcome army side Black Rhinos at Luveve Stadium.
Log leaders CAPS United will make the long trip to Hwange for a date against sporadic Chipangano deep in the bowels of the Colliery Stadium.
Former champions FC Platinum meet Yadah FC at Rufaro while basement side Bulawayo Chiefs takes on Triangle at Gibbo Stadium. Mushowani Stars will fight it out against Harare City at the giant National Sports Stadium.
Dynamos plays host to Erol Akbay’s Ngezi Platinum Stars at Rufaro Stadium.
Week Nine Fixtures
Saturday
Chicken Inn v Black Rhinos (Luveve Stadium), Herantals V Chapungu (National Sports Stadium), Yadah FC v FC Platinum (Rufaro Stadium), ZPC Kariba v Manica Diamonds (Nyamhunga Stadium)
Sunday
Triangle v Bulawayo Chiefs (Gibbo Stadium), Mushowani Stars v Harare City (National Sports Stadium), Hwange v CAPS United (Colliery Stadium), TelOne v Highlanders (Barbourfields Stadium), Dynamos v Ngezi Platinum Stars ( Rufaro Stadium).
Online Reporter