Online Reporter
Bruce Chikuni
Sports Reporter
SIMBA Bhora coach Joel Luphahla has hailed Kwekwe United’s fighting spirit after the championship leaders survived a scare and struck very late to keep their slender advantage in the race for the Castle Lager Premiership title at Wadzanai on Saturday.
The good money was on the champions having a stroll in the park but this turned out to be a tougher test than many had anticipated.
But Kwekwe United produced one of their best performances of the season and never appeared like a team that has won once and conceded 52 goals in 25 assignments.
Simba Bhora were thrust into the lead by Emmanuel Ziocha, who took his tally to four goals, just 20 before the break.
Schoolboy defending from Simba Bhora defender, Boid Mutukure, proved costly as fouled Timothy January inside the box and the referee was left with no option but to point to the spot eight minutes before the break.
January made no mistake as he denied William Thole his 15th clean sheet of the campaign.
That was the beginning of Simba Bhora’s nightmare. Kwekwe United bossed the hosts and they looked like they were going to win the match before everything changed in the 82th minute when Webster Tafa profited from poor defending as he slotted home amid some chaos.
Tavonga Kuleya sealed the victory in stoppage time with a curling effort.Luphahla acknowledged that the visitors gave a good account of themselves.
“We don’t want to take anything away from Kwekwe because they really fought and we knew they were very motivated because they have nothing to lose,” said Luphahla.
“We tried our best to get maximum points but I also felt we should have just buried the game in the first half, we created a lot of chances.
“This is the second time in a row that we have won the match at the death, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t and we need to improve our finishing if we really want to win the championship.”
Simba Bhora have 53 points in 26 games.They are just a point above their closest rivals, Scottland, with eight games to go.
