adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
GUNNERS return to action this afternoon when they lock horns with Blue Swallows in their rescheduled Northern Region Division One Soccer League tie at Gwanzura.
The match between the two teams, as well as the one between Blue Jets and Zatex, was moved to today after Blue Swallows and Jets requested to be excused last week as most of their players were competing in another tournament.
Gunners are coming from a 1-0 win over Ngezi Platinum and their coach Darlington Dodo said although the long break may affect them, he was ready for another assignment.
“Preparations were good although we had a long break. It might affect us but I don’t want to put it as something that might disturb us.
“As a team we have spoken about it, we had a good rest actually.
“Like I said before, we just take each game as it comes. We are committed to all the games we play. We want to collect the three points.
“I think our attitude is the same, whenever we play we respect our opponents but we are going to apply ourselves to the maximum to get the full set of points.
“Whatever position we are going to finish, we need to collect as much points as we can.
“We know Blue Swallows will come out fighting, there will be competition but we are going in there to get maximum points,” Dodo said.
Second-placed Gunners are bubbling with confidence after becoming the first team to beat Ngezi Platinum, who had gone for 23 games without a defeat, this season.
However, they should expect resistance from Blue Swallows, who are fighting to stay in the league after being relegated last year, before they bounced back this season when some clubs failed to meet the league’s requirements.
Swallows team manager Wonderful Rukuni said they were going into the match looking for three points to remain in the safe zone.
“We are preparing well and we would want to win. Looking at the log we are not safe yet, so we want to win although we are disadvantaged in that we will be away. If we lose we will go into the relegation zone.
“Gunners are a fighting for the championship and we are coming in as underdogs but we will fight for a win,” said Rukuni.
With Mushowani being their next opponents this weekend, Rukuni said after last week’s break, they are now under a bit of pressure with two big games to be fulfilled this week.
“We didn’t play last week because we were participating in the Commander’s Inter-base competition so we have pressure because we will play tomorrow (today) and on the weekend we will play Mushowani and these are big games.
“But football is unpredictable. You saw Cargo, they played Black Rhinos, a former Premiership team, and they collected maximum points at home. So we will just play our normal game,” said Rukuni.
The other match will see Blue Jets hosting Zatex at Rimuka in a bottom-of-the-table clash. Both teams are fighting relegation.
Today
Gunners v Blue Swallows (Gwanzura), Blue Jets v Zatex (Rimuka).
Online Reporter