adminMIDFIELDER Vincent Kachambwa scored the winner as Eradicators won the men’s Harare Hockey League Knockout Trophy after edging out a battling Drifters at Arundel School yesterday.
The victory kept Eradicators’ treble dream alive ahead of the Hockey Association of Zimbabwe Cup set for Bulawayo in a fortnight. Captain Mike Banda conceded the league champions were lucky to win the trophy after a lethargic show.
“It was quite tough. I think we relaxed at the end, we were all defensive in the second half. We defended very well, but our style of play isn’t to be a defensive – we like to go forward and attack. It wasn’t our best performance, but we won which was good enough for us,” said the attacking centre.
Banda added that the thought of the treble was pushing the team.
“We have got the HAZ Cup in October and we would love to make it a treble season. However, we will go into the competition with a lot of things to correct, we will take a lot of lessons from this game.”
Drifters skipper Ben Muchedzi rued missed chances. “We dominated the second half but could not turn that dominance into goals. At the end of the day that was the difference, one-nil. They had one chance and they put it away. We had ten to 15, we didn’t put them away,” he said.
In the ladies final Chelsea Drifters edged defending champions Mark Manolis Scorpions 3-2 in a come-from-behind win. Winning captain Bridget Hoard said they had come prepared for a tough battle.
“We were very determined, we came here to win and we were more experienced. They have got lots of young school girls and most of us are mature ladies.
“We have just been to a Masters Hockey tour in Potchefstroom in South Africa. We went and represented the country as a club and we had good experience down there. We learnt a lot there and would have been disappointed had we lost today,” she said.
Online Reporter