MAY MAYHEM

Robson Sharuko-H-Metro Editor

REMEMBER the date – Saturday, May 21, 2022!

Three former champions – Chicken Inn, Dynamos and FC Platinum – were leading the domestic championship race, in that order.

The Gamecocks were in pole position, with 32 points, DeMbare were second, a point behind, and the Zvishavane side were in third place, four points adrift of the leaders.

Chicken Inn had played one more game than both Dynamos and FC Platinum.

And, the reality was that a DeMbare victory, in their game in hand, would take them to the top of the table.

For a side, which had lost their last game against rivals Highlanders, this wasn’t a bad position, especially in pursuit of the championship race.

After all:

• The champions were THREE points behind DeMbare, with both teams having played the same number of games.

• Mapeza’s men had lost more games (three) compared to DeMbare, who had lost just two.

• They had the best defence, in the championship race, at that stage of the marathon, having conceded just SIX goals, in their 15 matches.

• That’s an average of a goal conceded every two-and-half games.

•  FC Platinum had conceded seven goals, from the same number of games, Chicken Inn had conceded 12 goals, exactly double the number which the Glamour Boys had let in.

But, at the Glamour Boys, the gods of madness are never very far away.

And, BOOM, on that early winter Saturday, the DeMbare Demons escaped from their cage, infected the minds of the club’s leadership, paralysed their brains and transformed them, in that moment, into ZOMBIES.

In their moment of considerable weakness, they decided to momentarily lend their brains to the angel of destruction, the godfather of confusion and the lord of chaos.

It’s a virus which affects successive Dynamos leaders and, on the eve of Golden Jubilee of the year the club was formed, it struck again amid the chilly conditions of that winter Saturday.

Somehow, without any indication of a crisis, for a club which was second in the championship race, the DeMbare leaders decided to wield the axe.

They suspended head coach Tonderai Ndiraya, even though his troops were just a point behind, in the championship race.

Why?

They said it was an internal issue and reasons for the suspension would be revealed after the conclusion of their investigations.

Four months later, they are yet to disclose to their fans why they made that decision, which rocked their ship, in a way in which it never recovered.

Of course, Ndiraya was back in charge of the team, six days later, but the damage inflicted by that moment of discord is still being felt.

The statistics, between then, and now, tell quite a revealing story.

• While DeMbare had a three-point cushion over FC Platinum, when Ndiraya was suspended, the Glamour Boys are now ELEVEN points behind the champions.

• This means there has been a huge 14-point swing, between the two clubs, in just the last 13 league matches.

• To put it in simple terms, FC Platinum have won FOUR games, and drawn two, while the Glamour Boys did not pick any points in those matches.

• In the first 15 games, before the Ndiraya suspension madness, Dynamos had 31 points, representing an impressive success rate of 68.88 percent.

• In those first 15 games, FC Platinum had 28 points, representing a success rate of 62.22 percent in the campaign.

• In the last 13 games, after the Ndiraya suspension madness, Dynamos have picked just 20 points, from a possible 39, representing a 51.28 percent success rate.

• It’s when you compare it with how FC Platinum have performed, in the last 13 games, that the true difference emerges.

• The champions have picked 33, out of a possible 39 points, for an outrageous 84.61 percent success rate, in the last 13 matches.

• Norman Mapeza’s men have won 10 of their last 13 games, drawing the other three, scoring 19 goals and conceding only TWO goals.

• The Glamour Boys had lost just TWO of their first 15 games and now they have lost THREE of their last 13, since that fateful decision to suspend Ndiraya.

They say figures don’t lie and, when Mapeza and his men parade their fourth straight title, the DeMbare family should remember the day they self-destructed.

Saturday, May 21, 2022!