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Lovemore Dube Sports Editor
HOW Mine coach Philani Mabhena has hailed his charges performance in the 1-0 shock victory over Dynamos at Luveve Stadium on Saturday.
The result was the biggest shock of the weekend as the Bulawayo team was expected to be slaughtered. This was after Dynamos won 3-0 in the reverse fixture played in Harare three weeks ago.
“The boys played very well. It showed that we worked on our shortcomings which were exposed in the first round tie in Harare.
“I am happy for the boys, they are coming up,” said Mabhena.
Mabhena said they had realised from the first round that they had allowed Dynamos too much space to play around with the ball in midfield. This had allowed them to carve open the defence and score the three goals.
The former Highlanders assistant coach said going into the game, they feared that they would at worst lose 1-0 to Dynamos.
“We realised that we were not compact in midfield, we worked on that during the two- week break. We also attended to cohesion, with all the three departments combining well in both attack and defence.
“After the Dynamos match we are now looking at beating Triangle. So now we are working on that game and we hope all goes well because we have put in a lot of effort,” said Mabhena.
Mabhena, a teacher by profession, said he would be reinforcing his team in central defence, central midfield and strikers during the transfer window.
How Mine will also be in the hunt for an experienced goalkeeper.
The win took How Mine to 24 points and seventh position.
Dynamos are fourth with 28 points.
The Glamour Boys would have moved to the top had they won with 31 points tied with leaders Harare City who were 2-1 victors over Hwange.
Bosso stayed second with the 0-0 draw against Caps United where a poor call by Brighton Nyika nearly caused violence. The Highlanders supporters have to be praised for self-restraint as the situation threatened to get out of hand.
Nyika had his flag up for offside but changed when the impressive referee Philani Ncube pointed to the spot in the 23rd minute after a Highlanders defender had brought down Rahman Kutsanzira.
Ncube consulted the fourth referee Bekezela Makeka before rushing to Nyika who concurred that he had initially lifted his flag for offside. The referee then changed his decision to offside, something that incensed Caps United followers who had prior to that thrown missiles at Munyaradzi Diya who was in goal for Highlanders.
If the truth be told, Highlanders players failed to come to the party. There was no zest at all with just the goalkeeper, twin backs Eric Mudzingwa and resurgent Innocent Mapuranga and left back Bruce Kangwa playing their hearts out.
It is time to ship out a good number of the players and bring in fresh talent still eager to build names for themselves.
Bosso chairman Peter Dube described his team’s fans as fabulous on the day.
“They were fabulous. We would like to commend them for realising that it’s just a game and nothing else. They also came in numbers and we hope they continue to do so,” said Dube.
FC Platinum coach Lloyd Mutasa suffered his first defeat, losing 0-2 to Black Rhinos in Kadoma on Sunday. This left them on position six with 26 points and still in the hunt for honours.
Caps earned a valuable point to consolidate their title chase with a solid display despite being a man down taking their tally to 27 points.
At the bottom, Motor Action’s days in the PSL are dwindling by the day. The bottom of the log club lost 0-2 to Monomotapa as Tripple B were no contest for Buffaloes who hit them 5-1 in Mutare.
Results
Buffaloes 5, Tripple B 1; Black Rhinos 2, FC Platinum 0, Motor Action 0, Monomotapa 2; Highlanders 0, Caps United 0; Chicken Inn 1, Shabanie 1; Black Mambas 0, Triangle 1; How Mine 1, Dynamos 0; Harare City 2, Hwange 1
Log
Harare City 16 9 4 3 25 14 31
Highlanders 16 9 3 4 26 14 30
Chicken Inn 16 9 3 4 22 16 30
Dynamos 16 7 7 2 23 10 28
Caps United 16 8 3 5 21 15 27
FC Platinum 16 7 5 4 20 14 26
How Mine 16 7 3 6 17 19 24
Buffaloes 16 7 1 8 28 29 22
Monomotapa 16 6 4 6 22 24 22
Triangle 16 5 4 7 16 18 19
Black Mambas 16 6 1 9 15 22 19
Shabanie 16 5 3 8 15 22 18
Hwange 16 4 5 7 15 18 17
Black Rhinos 16 4 4 8 18 25 16
Tripple B 16 4 2 10 16 24 16
Motor Action 16 3 4 9 13 23 13
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