Mapeza not losing sleep

Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
FC PLATINUM coach Norman Mapeza is not losing any sleep after surrendering the Premiership top place to CAPS United following his team’s defeat to TelOne on Saturday.

The Zvishavane miners slumped to a 0-1 defeat at the hands of the debutants at Luveve.

The high-flying Green Machine are top of the table, with a game in hand, and could stretch that lead to four should they win that outstanding match.

The rescheduled match against Chapungu is now set for the National Sports Stadium on Thursday.

But Mapeza said the season was still in its infancy. “So far so good, I can’t complain. Out of the seven matches we have played so far this season, the guys have done quite a fantastic job,’’ said Mapeza.

“Losing, winning and drawing is part of this industry and, at some point during the course of the season, we were going to drop points.’’

Mapeza’s charges have hardly rested for over a year now as they have been involved in the CAF Champions League but the gaffer has refused to blame fatigue.

“Look, talking about fatigue after losing a match will be like running away from the fact that we lost the game to a team that was organised and knowing exactly what they wanted from that game,’’ said Mapeza.

“We have been playing football for 16 months now and we have to soldier on for the remaining seven months.’’

He stressed he will have to manage his players to adjust as they don’t have enough time to rest as they will be playing in the Champions League starting this August.

Mapeza said the only way to do that will be managing well the “loading and compensation” to allow players to adapt to the fixtures.