Bosso overcome Arenel

Innocent Kurira at Barbourfields Stadium
Highlanders 2-0 Arenel

HIGHLANDERS ended their four-game winless streak with a beauty of a strike by substitute Gillian Nyathi in stoppage time, and a first-half goal from Lynoth Chikuhwa against Arenel at Barbourfields Stadium in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League.

Despite a tendency to miss opportunities in front of goal, Bosso were able to break the deadlock when Chikuhwa scored his 11th goal of the season, following a brilliant run by Never Rauzhi on the right.
McKinnon Mushore’s shot hit the woodwork before Chikuhwa slotted home.

Nyathi scored a beautiful curler from distance to seal the victory. Nyathi’s introduction in place of Honest Mhlanga in the 84th minute had been jeered by the home team’s fans. Mhlanga had also come on as a substitute for Melikhaya Ncube in the 57th minute.

After the final whistle, Bosso coach Kelvin Kaindu was pleased but cautious, knowing that they have to compete again on Saturday.

“We haven’t won for some time but we don’t want to get carried away, we have a game on Saturday. We have a few days to prepare, we have a number of players that are still out limping. In the first round we struggled against local teams but for us to get maximum points today, we had to work for the victory. We scored two goals although we had a number of chances we could have capitalised on and record a big score line,” said Kaindu.

His counterpart Philani Ncube admitted that his team’s defeat was frustrating and joked about Bosso’s walk out in their Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final match against Simba Bhora last week.

“We let in goals they should not have scored and denied them those they should have scored. We had planned well but our preparations were something else. If I tell you right now, it’s a sad story. We are not going to be relegated like some of you may think,” said Ncube.

“It doesn’t paint a good picture on us when we lose to a team that walked out of their match last week,” joked Ncube.

The start to the match was delayed by 10 minutes after Arenel had to change their stockings that matched the white colours of the home side, Highlanders.

Highlanders had the better start to the game and kept Arenel in their own half but lacked a killer instinct inside the opposition box.

Strikers Rauzhi, Nqobile Ndlovu and Chikuhwa on several occasions found themselves in good positions inside the box but they either were too slow with their decision-making or simply shot off target inside the first 15 minutes.

Defender Peter Mudhuwa made a brilliant diving block to deny Dalubuhle Dlodlo a goal from inside the box in the 11th minute.

Moments later, Chikuhwa and Rauzhi had a neat exchange of passes from outside the box but they seemed to miscommunicate leading to another chance going to waste.

In that same passage, Bosso had a penalty shout turned down by referee Kwanele Manenda after Melikhaya Ncube went down in the box.

Mushore saw his low shot from the left being parried away by Arenel goalkeeper Aaron Ngwenya in the 33rd minute.

Two minutes after the break, Rauzhi won a free-kick just outside the box and Ncube took the responsibility and forced a good low save from Ngwenya.

Not long after, Rauzhi was back threatening with a shot from distance but Ngwenya was equal to the task.

In the 66th minute Arenel came close to an equaliser through Brion Ngwenya whose free-kick from just outside the box was punched away by a diving Ariel Sibanda.

Fatigue set in as the game wound down.

Teams
Highlanders FC:
Ariel Sibanda, Lynoth Chikuhwa (Brian Ndlovu 84 minutes), McKinnon Mushore, Godfrey Makaruse, Andrew Mbeba, Mason Mushore, Peter Muduhwa, Nqobile Ndlovu (Brighton Ncube 67 minutes), Authur Ndlovu, Never Rauzhi, Melikhaya Ncube (Honest Mhlanga 57 minutes), (Gillian Nyathi 84 minutes)
Arenel FC:
Aron Ngwenya, Gabriel Dlodlo, Dalubuhle Dlodlo ( Chilubyo Mukuli 84 minutes), Brian Gijimani, Polite Mwenda, Timothy January (Grant Chingwenhese 31 minutes) Brian Jaravaza, Zibusiso Dambo, Lucky Nyathi (Brion Ngwenya 57 minutes), Crispen Machisi ( Andres Chituma 84 minutes) Toto Banda
Match Officials:
Referee:Kwanele Manenda
First Assistant: Brilliant Sibanda
Second Assistant: Sithule Dube
Fourth Official: Christine Mpanza