Online Reporter
Eddie Chikamhi
Zimpapers Sports Hub
SIMBA Bhora coach Joel Luphahla has described his first season as head coach in the Premiership as a complete failure after the Shamva side’s second-half-of-the-season collapse.
Starting off as defending champions of the Castle Lager Premiership and looking well on course for a repeat during the course of the season, Luphahla’s men just crumbled like a deck of cards in the homestretch.
Rivals Scottland eventually claimed the honours without much of a challenge under the tutelage of Tonderai Ndiraya, the same coach who also won the crown with Simba Bhora last season.
Simba Bhora will finish the season with no silverware after also falling short in the season-opening Castle Challenge Cup and Chibuku Super Cup.
“It’s really disappointing when you are given a team out of trust to say coach here is the team, we will need you to defend the title, but then it goes the other way.
“It’s obviously very bad. There is no excuse and I can’t hide behind anything; we disappointed the people of Shamva and the management as well,” said Luphahla.
Simba Bhora led the race for some time, sometimes exchanging the baton with MWOS and Scottland, but their plot unravelled when it mattered most.
Simba Bhora have not won a game in their last seven outings. In fact, they have not claimed maximum points since their preliminary round elimination from the CAF Champions League by Eswatini side Nsingizini Hotspurs two months ago.
This African Safari sojourn appeared to curse them as they have now dropped from pole position to third place going into the final round of matches.
But what exactly could have gone wrong with Luphahla’s promising project?
“Maybe we failed to handle the pressure because three quarters of the players in our team have never been involved in such demanding situations,” he explained.
“When you are the champions, everyone would want to beat you. Even when playing the small teams, the pressure was too much.
“So, we failed to win the league title, we also failed to win the Castle Challenge Cup and the Chibuku Super Cup.
“Also, the CAF Champions League — we should have handled the pressure from both competitions better. The preparations for the CAF Champions League are a bit difficult because the competition is much more taxing from the travelling and all.
“I think when we won the first leg against Nsingizini Hotspurs in Botswana there was anxiety to go to Eswatini and finish them off in the return leg.
“We just wanted to get over and done with them but then the way we conceded in the 90th minute, you could see that the anxiety and lack of experience got the better of us,” Luphahla said.
In their recent league outings, Simba Bhora have played draws against Bikita Minerals (1-1), Highlanders (1-1), Triangle (0-0), Scottland (0-0) and GreenFuel (0-0) while losing twice to Ngezi Platinum (2-1) and CAPS United (1-0).
The win-less run has left them sitting in third position with 58 points, eight behind champions-in-waiting Scottland and one behind MWOS.
“When we started the season, the aim was to get to 63 points because we believe 63 points have the potential to win the title in Zimbabwe. But as it stands, we can get only to 61 points if we win our last game.
“Hopefully, after going through this pain we can draw up crucial lessons as a unit and then we try to come back better next season,” Luphahla said.
His predecessor Ndiraya is on top of the world after winning back-to-back titles. Scottland sealed the deal with two games remaining in the season after trouncing Kwekwe United 5-1 about two weeks ago.
Ndiraya, however, felt they missed their points target following a goalless draw against GreenFuel at the weekend.
“After winning the championship we then set ourselves a target of getting to 71-point mark. That was the motivation behind this game (against GreenFuel) and then the next match,” said Ndiraya.
“But we have failed already, so the next target will be 69 points. We will try and push for that. It’s a bit difficult to motivate the players, especially after you have won the title.
“Since the Kwekwe game, the players have been in a celebratory mood, throughout the whole week, even at training you could see that excitement is huge but we tried psychologically to talk to them and they did their best.”
