adminThe Harare giants beat Highlanders 2-1 in the reverse tie last month before the league took a break.
Bosso are without a win in their last three matches.
Yesterday, Mangwiro said he was bracing for a possible backlash from the Bulawayo giants at their favourite hunting ground.
“We expect them to launch a serious battle and to fight. If we are to read much into their slump we will drop points,” said Mangwiro.
“We give them the respect they deserve but not fear them. I wouldn’t want to say they are performing badly as they are still on top of the log.”
The Green Machine will be missing one of their key strikers, Tawanda Nyamandwe, who has accumulated three yellow cards.
Midfielder Pride Tafirenyika and defender Ronald Pfumbidzayi will also watch from the sidelines as they are injured.
However, the gaffer was confident that the players available will deliver a positive result.
“It is an opportunity for others to prove their worth. They have played a pivotal role and we look forward to the players to deliver as a team,” he said.
Mangwiro said they have reviewed their first half performance and are pleased with what the team has achieved.
“We sat down as a team and had a review of the season where we got 26 points. So we have to maintain or do better those points we got in the first half.
“We see ourselves making the top four. If you see the way the season has gone and has been shaping, there is no one team which has dominated and maybe the team which will win the league would be around the 50-mark points.
“With the way things are going it would be difficult to have a team winning with league with 65 points or so,” said Mangwiro.
CAPS United will be looking for inspiration from their goalkeeper Tafadzwa Dube who has been an oasis of hope for the team since joining the Green Machine early this year.
Dube has helped the team with some crucial saves in a number of matches and tomorrow afternoon he should be at his best, against a Highlanders side likely to attack, for his team to pick out something from this contest.
Meanwhile our Bulawayo Bureau reports that the poor spell being experienced by Highlanders could be due to the fact the players are owed a substantial amount in winning bonuses
Morale at the club is said to be low and this has been cited as the reason for the string of recent poor results.
They lost their last three matches, two of them league games.
Last Saturday they bowed out of the lucrative BancABC Sup8r Cup at the hands of FC Platinum who booted them out 3-1 after a penalty shootout.
Last year, Bosso were paying as much as $300 in winning bonuses per game but according to highly-placed sources and some senior players, the club reduced that figure to about $180, which however, is still proving difficult to settle.
Highlanders treasurer, Jerry Sibanda said their club, like any other team in the league, has been struggling to get enough funding through the gate-taking for their home matches.
Online Reporter