Sports Reporter
HOW good has been Thabo Senong during his fairytale honemoon period at four-time league champions FC Platinum?
The 46-year-old South African coach arrived in Zvishavane to find a struggling team that was low on morale, low on confidence and desperate to stop the rot.
Joel Luphahla, who was in charge since the opening day of the season, had struggled to transform FC Platinum into a competitive team again.
He was fired mid-season and Senong, who was set to join Highlanders before Benjani Mwaruwari arrived to take the job, was recruited.
There was concern that the South African tactician was going to struggle in a league which he did not know a lot about and coaching players he did not know.
He arrived in the company of former Bafana Bafana midfielder Reneilwe “Yeye” Letsholonyane who was his assistant.
However, Yeye soon left and returned to Botswana after he was lured to take charge of Mochudi Centre Chiefs.
The management at FC Platinum responded by recruiting former Warriors leftback Onismor Bhasera to come in as Senong’s assistant.
Senong has quite an impressive CV after having coached the Lesotho national team and guided the South African Under-20 team, the Amajitas, to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup.
Four games into his spell as FC Platinum coach, the results are beginning to show signs of vast improvement at the four-time champions.
FC Platinum are unbeaten since Senong guided them for the first time, in a league match, against AGAMA.
Having waited for what looked like an eternity to secure his work permit, Senong was finally given the greenlight ahead of the game against AGAMA at Mandava.
He guided his side to a 1-0 win.
It appeared a routine win, to some, but one just needs to look at how FC Platinum had struggled, before that game, to appreciate the good work that went into that victory.
The Zvishavane side had won just one of their last 10 league games, drawn six and lost three.
They had only kept a clean sheet just three times in those 10 league games – against Bulawayo Chiefs, TelOne and Hardrock.
They had also lost 1-3 to Scottland in the Chibuku Super Cup game, with Senong watching from the terraces.
Two weeks down the line, after having been granted his work permit, Senong guided FC Platinum to a goalless draw against Scottland in a league match at Rufaro.
His team has also won against ZPC Kariba, in the league, and giant-killers Blanket Mine, in the Munhumutapa Challenge Cup quarter-finals.
In all the four matches, in which he has been in charge, FC Platinum have not conceded a goal.
Suddenly, FC Platinum appear like a side which could win silverware this season – something which would have sounded like a joke before Senong’s arrival.
