Monomotapa stalk relegation-haunted Gunners

stretch.
Monomotapa, the former champions, could turn into spoilers in the riveting battle for the league championship and have a good chance of winning the Mbada Diamonds Cup.
There are some big games in store for Monoz, who meet Dynamos in a league match at Rufaro on Sunday, before taking on CAPS United in the Mbada Diamonds Cup semi-finals.
Yesterday, Monoz coach Biggie Zuze said they were taking the tie against Chando Kupisa seriously ahead of their tough assignments.
On Saturday, Monoz faced another relega­tion-haunted side, Black Mambas, and won 3-2. And now they face a Gunners side scram­bling for points as they hang on for dear life in the Premiership.
“First, we are focusing on the Gunners’ game seriously and we wouldn’t want to go into the weekend’s match coming from a defeat,” said Zuze.
“It is a difficult game, they lost at the week­end and their position on the log is not good and they will fight.
“The game is the same as our weekend match against Mambas, it was a tough match though we eventually won.
“But we have started preparations for tomor­row and we had a morning session and all the players who received knocks trained well.”  Zuze said his players were bubbling with confi­dence.
“We have posted some wins and the confi­dence in the players is just high,” said Zuze.
“We just want to consolidate our league posi­tion and we are taking all our remaining matches seriously.
“We know we would be playing Dynamos and CAPS United in some big matches but these are also the matches which boost the pro­file of our players and we are prepared for everything.”  At Rufaro, it is a battle for a Top Eight spot when Harare City welcome CAPS United tomorrow.
The Green Machine are also enjoying a good run and on Sunday posted another win when they beat Gunners 2-1.
Harare City, who were away to relegated Quelaton, were held 1-1 by the Bulawayo side whose fate has already been decided.
And coach Bigboy Mawiwi is optimistic that his charges will come to the party tomorrow.
“It is going to be a tough game but we are ready for the game,” said Mawiwi.
“The boys lift their game when playing against the big teams unlike when playing small teams where they tend to be complacent.
“I was so disappointed, we wasted a lot of chances and we have resumed training and working hard so that we reclaim our position because we want to finish in the top eight.” The Mighty Bulls, who thumped five goals without reply against Blue Rangers, host Quelaton.
“We are on a roll at the moment and the players are making use of chances and under­standing each other,” said coach, Joey Antipas.
“It should be a tough encounter, Quelaton put up a good performance against Dynamos and have been playing well since and we know they will come at us.
“We want to finish in the top eight and we have to get maximum points. If everything goes according to plan we have to continue picking points until the season ends.”
While the weekend saw all the teams in real danger of being relegated failing to garner maximum points, they are optimistic that they may get it right during midweek.
Black Mambas coach John “Toto” Ncube said points are now hard to collect.
“The points are hard to get and we were hop­ing to get something against Monomotapa but our defence cost us,” said Ncube.
“We have tried to rectify that today (yester­day) at training and we know it would be a tough game against Dynamos but they will not win the game on a silver plate.
“Every year it is either a draw or a defeat whenever we play against Dynamos since we got into the Premiership and its high time we try something and collect points.
“They want to retain the title and we want to move away from relegation.
“If we continue losing matches we would be putting ourselves in real danger as. At this stage we cannot rely on other teams and we better collect points on our own.”
Fixtures: Tomorrow:  Black Mambas v Dynamos (Morris Depot), Harare City v CAPS United (Rufaro), Gunners v Monomotapa (Lafarge), Motor Action v Quelaton (Motor Action Sports Club), Hwange v Hardbody (Colliery), Chicken Inn v Blue Rangers (Luveve), Shabanie v FC Plat­inum (Maglas).