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Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
MUTARE-BASED Castle Lager Premiership club, Manica Diamonds’ coach, Jairos Tapera is aiming at keeping his team within the top four at the end of the season, while winning the title will be a bonus.
The Gem Boys, as they are fondly referred to by their fast growing fan base, walloped Triangle 3-1 at Gibbo Stadium last Sunday in a match that they also scored the fastest goal so far in the league season at 25 seconds from the first whistle.
Manica Diamonds’ top man, Fortune Binzi also marked his return from injury during that match with the second goal.
The Gem Boys opened their account with a goal from defender Brian Chikwenya, before the free-scoring Binzi doubled the lead for Manica Diamonds.
Ralph Kawondera put the match beyond their opponents’ reach with the third goal for the diamond miners.
Manica Diamonds are on third position with 35 points from 19 matches and trail early pacesetter, Highlanders by six points.
However, their coach, Tapera, who refused from the onset of the 2023 Premiership season to be pressured into declaring interest in gunning for the domestic top-flight league football biggest prize, maintains that his wish is to see his team among the top four, come the end of the season.
“I wish my charges to remain in the top four and it depends on how many games we will win going forward. Like I have always said, my focus is to win the next match and play one match at a time. I just hope we will continue collecting points as each match passes,” said Tapera.
“Winning the title is everyone’s dream and we will not let that put us under unnecessary pressure. Our wish is to collect points as we go in every match,” he added.
Manica Diamonds’ fine run in the 2023 season has its own heroes.
Undoubtedly, their goalkeeper, Tedious Baye and striker Binzi have been stand-out performers.
The 27-year-old goal-minder, who joined the Gem Boys from GreenFuel FC, has been a major surprise to many due to a nearly flawless performance that gave the Gem Boys an added advantage in most of their league matches.
Tapera said: “He (Baye) is a wonderful guy, well-disciplined and his athleticism saves games for us. I have no doubt that he is one of the top two best goalkeepers so far.”
In the first five matches of the season, Jorum Muchambo was the club’s first choice goalkeeper, but the Tapera-led technical department soon found a reason to believe in Baye and indeed the decision is paying off.
Commendably, of the 15 matches that he features for the diamond miners, Baye kept nine clean sheets, conceded just seven goals and saved three penalties.
Their striker, Binzi’s outstanding performance is crystal clear for all to see.
Manica Diamonds have been winning matches by relatively wider margin, thanks to the nine goals that Binzi added to their list of goals so far this season.
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