Ngezi Platinum thump Hwange

Tobias Mandoreba in Hwange
Hwange ……………………………..0
Ngezi Platinum …………….. (0) 3

HWANGE’S first home game of the 2017 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season turned into a disaster as visiting Ngezi Platinum turned on the style to clobber the hapless coalminers at the Colliery yesterday afternoon.

At the end of the day, the mass exodus of players at Hwange during off season was telling as the platinum miners ran off comfortable winners with second half goals from veteran Washington Pakamisa, Donald Teguru and substitute Tatenda Mchisa in injury time.

Ngezi started the match with some high tempo attacking and could have raced into the lead as early as the fifth minute when overlapping defender Nielson Ketala unleashed a rasping shot from the edge of the box which drew a top drawer save from Hwange goal minder Taimon Mvula. Three minutes later Tichaona Mabvura came back to haunt the hosts with another thunderous effort which sailed inches over the bar with Mvula diving in vain.

The visitors continued to camp in the Hwange half with raid after raid but the breakthrough could not come especially in the opening 25 minutes in a spell which a Terrence Dzukamanja inspired Ngezi threatened to overrun their adversaries.

Hwange crept into the game in the last 20 minutes of the opening stanza with some methodical build ups revolving around Oscar Lungu but all efforts to get a goal fizzled into thin air as Partson Jaure and partners in defence remained solid and kept twin strikers Gilbert Zulu and Shepherd Gadzikwa under lock and key.

Six minutes into the second half Hwange finally crumbled under pressure when Pakamisa grabbed the opener for Ngezi when his grounder from inside the box took an awkward bounce and deceived a diving Mvula before rolling into the nets. Ngezi goalkeeper Nelson Chadya denied Hwange an immediate response in the 55th minute when he acrobatically went airborne to tip a glancing Gadzikwa header over the bar for a corner.

With Hwange huffing and puffing for an equaliser, it was Ngezi who doubled their lead 10 minutes from full-time after defender Houdlacks Kaunda slipped in an attempt to clear a loose ball leaving Teguru with all the time in the world to coolly slot home past Mvula.

There was further misery for Hwange in the first minute of injury time when substitute Mchisa completed the rout with an easy tap in after latching on to a lovely pass by Ketala who had done all the donkey work on the left flank. Hwange coach Nation Dube noted that his young side gave a good fight but could not contain a well drilled Ngezi side.

“The young boys tried their best as we are in a learning stage with a number of new faces. Holding a team like Ngezi who were playing in Africa for the entire opening half shows there is potential. We let the soft goals but I believe we can dust ourselves and fight going forward,” said Dube.

Tonderai Ndiraya heaped praise on his charges.