Manica Diamonds stun Gamecocks

Bulawayo Bureau

Chicken Inn……………………0

Manica Diamonds…. (1) 2

CHICKEN Inn’s four-match unbeaten run in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League came to an end yesterday, when they succumbed to a home defeat at the hands of Manica Diamonds at Luveve.

Veteran Benjamin Marere got the first goal for the visitors in the opening minute of the match after the Gamecocks’ rearguard was found wanting.

Marere then turned provider in the last minutes of the duel to create a chance for ex-Chicken Inn striker Ismael Lawe to tuck the ball into the roof of the net, thereby making it two straight wins for caretaker coach, Johanisi Nhumwa.

Marere, a former Dynamos, FC Platinum and How Mine winger, took advantage of a Liberty Chakoroma defensive blunder inside the box and laid the ball into Lawe’s path.

The latter’s rising strike beat a badly exposed Chicken Inn goalkeeper Pride Zendera to kill the match as a contest.

It was a game in which Joey Antipas’ Chicken Inn charges finished one-man short after their stocky and speedy forward Obriel Chirinda was shown a straight red card in the 35th minute.

Chirinda was adjudged to have fouled Peace Makaha in an off the ball incident.

The Zimbabwe youth international’s expulsion did not go down well with the hosts, but a fuming Antipas felt his men failed to rise to the occasion.

“We deserved to lose. We were just bad and we blame that to our defence. We were too slow to react. It was a poor performance and we will go around asking questions, we need answers,” said the two-time winning championship gaffer.  “We won the match in midfield, where we played with two defensive linkmen. We applied ourselves very well and I’m happy we are beating the big guns of the league,” said Nhumwa.