adminThere was a near explosive situation soon after the match ended with some sections of the FC Platinum supporters calling on the referee to end the match as Bosso threatened to further embarrass them.
When the torture finally ended, the supporters gathered at the main entrance behind the VIP enclosure and sang songs calling for Gumbo’s ouster with some waving placards bidding him farewell.
Some, however, chose to lash out some tribal slurs accusing Gumbo of being a tribalist by favouring Bulawayo players.
“Go back to Bulawayo, you are a mercenary who was sent to kill Mimosa, we want John Phiri to take over,” shouted some of the supporters who were under heavy police guard with vicious-looking dogs ready to pounce.
Club chairman Tadson Zhou then addressed the supporters who were growing in numbers and assured them that their calls had been heard.
That promise or threat seemed to suggest that Gumbo would indeed be shown the door, becoming the second coach this season after Quelaton fired Thulani Sibanda last month.
However, yesterday morning, Zhou spoke with a conciliatory tone.
“We will review the match next week but we cannot make an emotional decision over a single match. The season is still long,” said Zhou.
He said big teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona among others have been embarrassed in their own backyards but still kept their technical team.
But sources within the club said certain contractual clauses in Gumbo’s contract could have been the hitch as the club would have paid him a lot of money.
On Saturday he faces fourth-placed Motor Action at Mandava Stadium and although Zhou appears to show some face, a defeat then will surely be the end of his one-year dance with the league’s richest club.
Meanwhile, Highlanders coach Kelvin Kaindu refuses to acknowledge that he has built a mean and potent squad after crushing a highly fancied FC Platinum on May Day holiday.
Highlanders tore all records into shreds by hitting three goals past goalkeeper Tafadzwa Dube in an afternoon that FC Platinum were bombarded from left, right and centre and with a bit of composure, Dube could have picked the ball almost six times from his nets.
The three goals scored by Bosso were the first to be conceded by FC Platinum at Mandava Stadium with the previous record of goals conceded being the 2-2 draw against Shabanie Mine.
“I cannot say we are there yet. However, we are slowly getting there and very soon we will be a complete machine. There is still some work to be done,” said the Zambian born gaffer.
Highlanders are now on third place, a point behind joint leaders Chicken Inn and Shabanie Mine who have 11 points.
Highlanders have so far conceded five goals all of them coming inside three games but they have hit the nets a massive 13 times an average of 3,25 goals per match. At this rate, a season’s tally of 97 goals or even more can be reached.
The soft-spoken Zambian is, however, not concerned much about his defence.
“For you to win you have to score more goals than your opponents and we will continue doing that. I am not really worried much about my defence although we have to work on it a bit. We just have to be better than our opponents all the time and that can be done by scoring more goals as much as possible,” said Kaindu.
On Monday, FC Platinum coach, Rahman Gumbo got his cards all wrong from the start when he benched the hard tackling Norman Togara and Bosso pounced on that resulting in two goals coming a minute apart inside 33 minutes.
The home team resorted to long aerial balls so as to get past Maphosa and then pounce but they found a steady Eric “Airforce One” Mudzingwa.
The long balls kept on coming and Bosso were bound to succumb and succumb they did in the 71st minute when Ali Sadiki took full advantage of some communication mix up between Ariel Sibanda and his defence to blast home the consolation goal.
LOG STANDINGS
P W D L F A Gd Pts
Chicken Inn 5 3 2 0 9 1 +8 11
Shabanie Mine 5 3 2 0 8 3 +5 11
Highlanders 4 3 1 0 13 5 +8 10
Motor Action 5 3 1 1 7 5 +2 10
Monomotapa 5 2 2 1 6 5 +1 8
Gunners 5 2 1 2 5 3 +2 7
Hwange 4 2 2 1 6 6 0 7
Dynamos 3 2 0 1 7 2 +5 6
FC Platinum 4 1 3 0 7 5 +2 6
Harare City 5 1 3 1 4 4 0 6
Caps United 5 1 2 2 4 5 -1 5
Buffaloes 4 1 1 2 3 5 -2 4
Black Mambas 5 1 1 3 4 9 -5 4
Hardbody 5 1 0 4 5 10 -5 3
Quelaton 5 1 0 4 4 12 -8 3
Blue Rangers 4 0 0 4 3 13 -10 0
Online Reporter