Gunners down Monoz

Lafarge yesterday.
Tapiwa Dephistara scored the price­less goal for Chando Kupisa deep in the second half and ensured Gunners maintained their unbeaten run in the league against Monomotapa.
Gunners who were 15th at the start of yesterdays’ Week 27 programme jumped two places up the ladder, leapfrogging Hardbody and Blue Rangers.
Moses Chunga’s young charges dom­inated proceedings from the start to end and came close to taking the lead as early as the eighth minute but left back Pardon Chinungwa fluffed the effort.
Ismael Lawe who wasted a lot of chances during the whole afternoon collected a Moses Muchenje’s cross but his effort sailed far off the post when he should have done better.
It seemed like a matter of time before the 2009 champions broke the dead­lock, and they thought they were close to doing so in the 43rd minute but Lawe sent a low shot from the edge of the box which never troubled Monomotapa goalkeeper Artwell Mukandi.
The second half started in much the same way with Gunners threatening Monomotapa’s goal area but the Monoz resistance was broken in the 63rd minute when Dhephistara shot past Mukandi after latching onto a loose ball off a rebound from William Gondo’s effort.
Gunners however failed to turn their dominance into more goals wast­ing away a number of good chances with Lawe being the chief culprit.
Lawe wasted more than five scoring chances and in the 51st minute he received a good through ball from his goalkeeper Clayton Dombo but he sent his effort wide with only Mukandi to beat.
He came close again in the 72nd minute after being sent clear by the impressive Dondo, but this time Mukandi was quick off his line to smother the danger.
Chunga was happy with the three points and remains confident of surviv­ing relegation but was worried about his team’s poor finishing.
“It was a fantastic display and I am glad we managed to score one goal which gave us the three points.
“The next two games will be very crucial for us. We have been playing well but unfortunately playing well doesn’t account for anything if you don’t collect the three points.
“It’s a cause for concern because we are in relegation and goal difference might count but we want to make it easy by getting three points in our next matches,” said Chunga.
Monomotapa lost the battle espe­cially in the midfield as they struggled to create clear cut chances for strikers.
Coach Biggie Zuze probably with one eye on their bigger weekend clash with Dynamos started with his key strikers  Kuda Musharu and Tawanda Nya­mandwe on the bench.
Zuze however, blamed lack of cohe­sion for their defeat.
“The only problem is that we didn’t play well as a team as you can see we didn’t create enough chances as we usu­ally do.
“Credit should go to Gunners they fight from the first whistle to the end and I think they were better side espe­cially in the second half, they were first to the ball all the time.
“We have to start from this defeat to build up because we have an important match game at the weekend against Dynamos and I hope we will recover,” Zuze said.
Teams:
Gunners:
C. Dombo, P. Chinungwa, W. Kamudyariwa, M. Muchenje, I. Lawe, W. Gondo, A. Gwatidzo (E. Rhap­pozzoh 82nd), J. Jangano, T. Dephistara, M. Demera, M. Kunyarimwe
Monomotapa:
A. Mukandi, M. Hillary, R. Chitiyo, T. Ngulube, J. Mutambiranwa (T. Nyamandwe), R. Madamombe, O. Mukuradare (K. Musharu 75th), J. Tigere, Z. Bizeki, N. Melson, C. Rukwanhi (O. Mwerahari 75th),