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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
HARARE City coach Taurai Mangwiro believes his team has what it takes to upstage Castle Lager Premiership football log leaders Chicken Inn despite a ballooning casualty list at the Sunshine Boys.
The municipality club face the early pacesetters at the National Sports Stadium on Saturday without four of their regular players who are down injured.
Strikers Timothy January, Wilfred Muvirimi and Jerry Chipangura are all out of this fixture so is Tinashe Mureya.
The sun hasn’t really been shining for the municipality club who have endured a rough start to the season after accumulating just six points in as many games.
And they are bracing for a tall hurdle against a team that has shown character and spirit in this opening phase of the championship race.
Mangwiro’s side are a massive nine points behind the 2015 champions Chicken Inn and they need to cut the yawning gap on Saturday.
“Our team is affected heavily by injuries to several players including Tinashe Mureya, Timothy January, Jerry Chipangura as well as Wilfred Muvirimi who are all down with injuries. That is not something encouraging to look at.
“But we are preparing well ahead of what looks like a tough task against the current pacesetters Chicken Inn who have been doing well of late,” said Mangwiro.
“We have had that setback of losing in our last match against FC Platinum but we want to stay positive at the same time, we hope that we will be able to maximise home advantage, given we are playing at Harare.”
Mangwiro, who joined Harare City from Triangle this year, has won once, drawn once and lost once in the three games he has been in charge of the Sunshine Boys.
And he believes Chicken Inn, who have lost once this season, are beatable although they are a tough team.
“We certainly want to put our campaign back on track, breath some life into it.
“We are not happy at the moment obviously with our current position and like I have always said, the priority for now is to steer the team to a respectable position and that is what we have in our minds against Chicken Inn.
“This is obviously a team that is playing top, top football at the moment but certainly it is not an insurmountable task on our part.
“All we need is to keep believing as a team and hope that we will be able to deliver in the match on Saturday.”
The last time Harare City played at the National Sports Stadium, they came out 3-1 victors over Cranborne Bullets just a day before Chicken Inn recorded a 1-0 win over Dynamos at the same venue.
On Saturday, Harare City will be banking on former Dynamos and FC Platinum striker Emmanuel Mandiranga to help them upset the high-flying Gamecocks.
Online Reporter