Online Reporter
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
RELEGATION-HAUNTED Mutare Castle Lager Premiership outfit, Manica Diamonds will embark on a trip they will love to hate, more so with the axe hanging over their head, as they travel to Bulawayo for a tricky assignment against Highlanders at Barbourfields Stadium tomorrow (Saturday).
The penultimate Castle Lager Premiership round of league matches for the 2025 season comes at a time when Manica Diamonds are fighting for dear life in the top-flight league, and a well-supported opponent like Highlanders will be the last thing they would have imagined, let alone in their own backyard.
Manica Diamonds have not managed to beat Highlanders at Barbourfields Stadium since they were promoted into the Castle Lager Premiership, even though both teams have each won three times against each other.
The rest of the duels between the two teams ended in draws.
Be that as it may, tomorrow’s match is a different ball game altogether. Highlanders’ house has not been in order in recent weeks, with reports of player industrial action over unpaid dues making headlines in the mainstream and social media.
On the other hand, Manica Diamonds’ challenges on the field of play have been well-documented, with the Gem Boys now fighting long and hard to remain part of the country’s top-flight league.
But it is Manica Diamonds, who are coming into this encounter as underdogs, and the fact that Barbourfields is an intimidating match venue for the opponents makes Tafadzwa Mashiri’s men’s task more complex.
Mashiri reckons that the atmosphere at Barbourfields is highly likely to be a factor in this encounter.
“It will not be an easy encounter for us at all. We all know the atmosphere at Barbourfields Stadium, and that is likely to be the same when we play against Highlanders. We are on our own, and we just have to give it our best shot, hoping to get a good result. A draw will not be a bad result at Barbourfields, but that does not mean we will be playing for a draw. We want to win and boost our chances of surviving relegation before we get to the last match of the season. The good thing is that our boys now understand what is expected of them, and their performance in recent matches has not been disappointing,” said Mashiri.
Indeed, unlike fans in most cities around the country, especially here in Mutare, where the home team earns support only when it is playing well, fans in Bulawayo walk with the team through thick and thin.
For some strange reason, the Castle Lager Premiership season of 2025 gets into its penultimate round of league fixtures with nine teams facing the possibility of being relegated, depending on the results from the last two rounds of matches.
The situation is even more dire for teams that are based in the Eastern Region, as all four – Manica Diamonds, GreenFuel FC, Triangle United, and Bikita Minerals – are all in the relegation matrix.
As fate would have it, next weekend, the four teams will be playing against each other on the final day of the season.
Bottom nine remaining fixtures:
CAPS United 39 pts: MWOS (H); Kwekwe United (A)
Highlanders 37 pts: Manica Diamonds (H); Chicken Inn (A)
Chicken Inn 37 pts: Ngezi Platinum (A); Highlanders (H)
Manica Diamonds 37 pts: Highlanders (A); Bikita Minerals (H)
Dynamos FC 37 pts: Yadah (A); FC Platinum (H)
Bikita Minerals 36 pts: Simba Bhora (H); Manica Diamonds (A)
GreenFuel 35 pts: Scottland (A); Triangle (H)
Triangle United 34 pts: Kwekwe United (H); GreenFuel (A)
Yadah 34 pts: Dynamos (H); Simba Bhora (A)
Kwekwe United 10 pts: Triangle (A); CAPS United (H)
