adminFungai Muderere, in ZVISHAVANE
SO packed and colourful was Mandava Stadium, a venue that Highlanders’ Melikhaya Ncube chose to steal the show to give Bosso an all important victory.
This was courtesy of a brilliant bicycle kick he orchestrated following a goal-mouth melee when the match was only 28 minutes old, following a corner kick.
It was Ncube’s third goal in Bosso colours, a club he joined early this year after parting ways with former Castle Lager Premiership side Bulawayo City.
So pulsating was the match that the Bosso faithful celebrated the result as if they had won the championship.
Bosso, who are yet to taste defeat after 15 rounds of play, sit at the apex of the log standings with 31 points, four ahead of second placed Ngezi Platinum Stars.
Highlanders head coach Baltemar Brito, who has seen his charges score 13 goals and conceding four times, said the Bosso family has every right to celebrate his players’ tireless efforts that have seen them dominate the country’s elite football league.
“The boys deserved this win. This is all because of their good performance and good football spirit. It all shows that we can do something.
“It was a good fight and I think it has been long that the Highlanders family has witnessed such a good season performance so far,” said an over-the-moon Brito, amid scenes of jubilation by Bosso players, deep in the cauldron of Mandava Stadium singing along with their followers in popular Bosso celebratory songs.
While his opposite number Kumbirai Mutiwekuziwa felt hard done by referee Owen Manhenda, he alleged that they were denied a genuine penalty in the dying stages of the match.
The Herentals family, which however gave a good show by keeping the Bosso rearguard busy the entire afternoon, felt robbed of a spot kick in another goal mouth melee that saw Highlanders goalkeeper Ariel “Mangoye”, Sibanda, Peter Muduhwa and Andrew “Tower” Mbeba summoning all their defensive skills right at the death of the match with the Students screaming for a penalty which Manhenda turned down with the help of his first assistant Salani Ncube.
It was a match that attracted the who is who of Zimbabwean football and it was a day that Amahlolanyama at the end employed defensive tactics by introducing Andrew Tandi for striker Lynoth Chikuhwa all in an effort to thwart their opponents’ raids led by veteran second half substitute Godfrey “Marabha” Mukambi.
Online Reporter