adminAugustine Hwata Senior Sports Reporter
THE Harare Derby could have blinded a visitor to Zimbabwe into believing that it’s the only Castle Lager Premiership fixture this weekend yet there is a full programme of events. Joint leaders Harare City are making the long trip to the Lowveld where they play Triangle at Gibbo tomorrow. Harare City were dislodged from the top spot by Dynamos after losing 3-1 at Rufaro in a mid-week fixture but their coach Bigboy Mawiwi said the defeat is now history.
“Our preparations have gone on well for this game and we have due respect for Triangle because they have been on a good run of late.
“But we will not read too much into their good run but will aim for a positive result.
“As far as we are concerned it’s only a superior goal difference that separates the top teams,” said Mawiwi.
However, Mawiwi said he will not be focusing much on the league championship for now because the race was still open for any of the top six teams.
“At the moment we are not talking about the championship until some five games to go. The race is still wide open.
“But we have to try and get positive results on our own than to be worried with what happens at other teams,” said Mawiwi. Triangle coach Gishon Ntini led his team to a 2-0 win over Motor Action at Callies last week and now hopes to do even better at home.
Ntini feels that Triangle are not entirely safe from relegation.
Triangle boosted their side when they brought in Misheck Mburayi and Norman Togara in mid-season.
Another clash tomorrow is at Dulibadzimu where Tripple B face Hwange in a game coach Peter Manoti hopes to collect maximum points.
“We are very far away from the rest of the Premiership teams and we struggled to find opponents for friendlies.
“In the end we played Division One clubs during the break and that affected our performance.
“However, we always play before a full house and I hope it will inspire us to win at home,” said Manoti.
FC Platinum will host Monoz this weekend as they fine-tune for the BancABC Sup8r Cup final against Shabanie.
Masimba Dinyero, the FC Platinum assistant coach, yesterday said his side were still dark horses for the league championship.
“We must not take this game lightly because if we do that we will cry by the end of the day. So we should not be complacent because we are still in the championship race.
“FC Platinum are still in the championship race and there are still 10 games to go and we are five points behind the leaders, which is like just two games,” said Dinyero yesterday.
In the other matches, Highlanders face How Mine in a Bulawayo derby as Chicken Inn begin life without Tendai Ndoro when they meet Black Rhinos at Luveve today.
Online Reporter