adminLovemore Dube in BULAWAYO
CHUONI FC say they are down, but not out of the Caf Confederation Cup and have promised fireworks in their return leg clash against How Mine in Unguja, Zanzibar, on Saturday.
Despite losing 0-4 the visitors, who leave the City of Kings this morning, say they would up their game and turn around what appears to be Mission Impossible.
Head of delegation Salim Ally Juma and coach Ali Abdalla Hassan said they won’t hand a first round ticket to How Mine on a silver platter.
“We had hoped to do well. The pitch was bad, it made playing very difficult and with a young inexperienced side we could not rise to it,” said Abdalla.
“We are playing for the first time at this level and we are not disappointed at all, we picked up a number of positives.”
He said his team was fairly young with some of the players having risen through the club’s ranks.
“We noted our mistakes, we have started working on that. Today we have given our boys time off to sight-see around Bulawayo,” said Abdalla.
“But when we get back home we will perfect our act and fight for a positive result, we hope we can be able to turn the score on How Mine and proceed to the next stage.
“We will begin preparations on Tuesday because of the way we are travelling, it does not help to bemoan the little time we will have up to Saturday to correct our mistakes, we have to make the best out of the available time to focus and forge ahead.”
His club has three national team players Saleh Hamad, Hussein Rashid and Yussuf Molid.
Juma, a member of the Zanzibar Football Association, said he was happy with the hospitality accorded to them in Zimbabwe.
“We have been treated well since we arrived. We have been given good facilities from hotel to practice grounds.
“It is a pity the pitch was in that state but so far we have enjoyed a lot,” said Juma.
There were fears on the eve of the match that the game could be postponed because of a waterlogged pitch.
How Mine coach, Philani Ncube, praised his lads and said with better co-ordination they could have scored more goals.
“We yet to co-ordinate well as a team. It could have been better though, the four goals are a good start though we had a chance to bury more chances,” said Ncube.
“The fitness levels are improving and we hope to finish them off in Zanzibar.”
How Mine fluffed a glut of chances especially in the first half.
New signing Kudakwashe Musharu showed glimpses of the value that persuaded the miners to lure him from Harare with a good performance, bagging a brace on his debut for the gold miners.
He was impressive as the lone striker upfront terrorising the defence, controlling the ball and laying it back to midfield.
Warren Dube and captain Mernard Mupera scored the other two goals. If Saturday’s performance, in what looks like a new How Mine outfit is anything to go by, then they will be a hard nut to crack as regulars Brighton Dube, Gilbert Banda and Herbert Dick did not play.
There seems to be depth in their camp with Benjamin Marere and Heritein Masuku among the experienced players though not registered for the Confederation Cup.
Banda and Dube were not part of the team as they have not renewed their passports while Dick sat it out on the bench.
How Mine’s 4-0 mauling of Chuoni was the highest score by a club from the City of Kings in an African inter-club competition.
The previous best score was a 3-0 win by Highlanders over Sable de Batie in 2000 which was, however, overturned in the second leading to a penalty shootout 6-7 loss by probably the strongest Highlanders side in the last 20 years which featured greats like Thabani Masawi, Zenzo Moyo, Thulani Ncube, Blessing Gumiso, Noel Kaseke, Mamba Chisoni and Siza Khoza
Online Reporter