adminentertaining Castle Lager Premiership soccer match at Sakubva yesterday.
The Premiership returnees won 2-1 against Shabanie Mine at Sakubva a fortnight ago before they dismissed Bulawayo side Chicken Inn 1-0 away at Luveve last week.
Albeit performing above average while playing away from home, the Saul Chaminuka-coached side had a poor home record after losing 1-3 to Monomotapa in the
season opening encounter then drew 1-1 against Highlanders and later losing 0-2 to Dynamos – all at home.
However, in yesterday’s exhilarating encounter against the Mighty Bulls, Buffaloes were in the driving seat from the onset and literally camped in their opponents half for the greater part of the afternoon.
Stocky Marlvin Dumbura could have propelled the Mutare-based side into the lead after only eight minutes when he got to the end of a beautiful cross from captain
Dananai Chinowawa but the Buffaloes striker lacked precision and put his effort wide off the target.
However, five minutes later the forceful Dumbura once again almost put his name on the scoresheet when he cleverly turned and shot at goal leading to the Mighty Bulls defender Godfrey Moyo handling the ball in the box in a desperate attempt to parry it to safety resulting in referee Brighton Chimene duly pointing to the spot.
And up-stepped veteran defender Chinowawa who made no mistake from the spot as he sent Mighty Bulls goalkeeper Marlon Jani the wrong way to hand the Mutare side a well deserved lead. In the entire 90 minutes, Motor Action rarely ventured upfront and their only meaningful chance came in the 20th minute when Norman Maroto released a blistering shot from close-range but man-of-the-match Hopeful Bere was equal to the task as he comfortably kept his team in the lead with a fine save.
Buffaloes coach Chaminuka praised his players for playing “according to instructions”.
“I think we deserved to win this match. My players were attacking from the onset of the match and that is exactly what we told them. At the end of it all, I am impressed that we got the three points that we wanted. We are now looking forward to the next match on Thursday against Harare City and we are aiming at nothing
less than three points,” Chaminuka said. His Motor Action counterpart Joey Antipas blamed the bumpy pitch at Sakubva and the referee for his team’s loss.
“The referee denied us two clear penalties. He was biased against us and of course how could we have played our usual game in such a bumpy pitch? I think my players did everything they could but we could not get the result that we wanted because the pitch would not allow us to play our normal game,” said Antipas.
Online Reporter