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Senior Sports Reporter
CASTLE Lager Premier Soccer League high scorers Hwange have refused to read too much into their emphatic demolition of Buffaloes while Dynamos coach Callisto Pasuwa has taunted his rivals by quipping that he will have a serious selection poser this season. For the Bulawayo giants, Highlanders though, their supporters were left scratching their heads trying to go down memory lane to find out the last time Bosso failed to collect maximum points in their opening match of the season after being held 0-0 by Chapungu at Ascot Stadium.
More questions were asked as to why only one of their “array of stars” (Charles Sibanda) they bought started the match while Kudakwashe Mahachi came in as a second half substitute and had a bad league debut which even coach Kelvin Kaindu acknowledged at the end of the match.
“I am rather disappointed with our substitutes,” said Kaindu.
Pasuwa, speaking after seeing his boys start the defence of their title with a 1-0 win over an equally impressive How Mine, albeit through an unfortunate own goal by Brighton Dube, declared that his major worry was the talent at his disposal which he believes will give him serious selection headaches.
On Sunday, Pasuwa was without injured Masimba Mambare, suspended Partson Jaure, ageless Murape Murape while Devon Chafa and Cliff Sekete came off the bench.
Hate them or love, the line-up looks really scary.
“It will be a huge struggle coming up with our final 18 before every match because of the large selection pool we have, they are all good players,” said Pasuwa.
With dribbling wizard Ronald Chitiyo running rings around his opponents and Patrick Khumbula and Simba Sithole leading the attack, Pasuwa said he was still comfortable with taking out Chitiyo and Khumbula. Sithole though needs to remain composed and take out the I-am-better because-I-played-in-South-Africa mentality and play for the team. He earned himself an unnecessary yellow card for simulation in the 14th minute. It was a case of minimum contact and maximum exaggeration which however did not fool referee Philani Ncube.
At the Colliery Stadium, a Rodwell Chinyengetere propelled Hwange pummelled Buffalloes into submission through goals from the former Warriors player Chinyengetere who marked his return to the field with a brace, the same as Evans Rusike while the fifth goal came from the boot of Tara Chese.
It was a victory meant to instil some sense of belief and raise hopes that maybe this year might be the year but coach Nation Dube doesn’t want to be excited, at least for now.
He believes there is still some work to be done before they can say all is well.
“To us it’s still work in progress, we are happy with the win yes but we don’t want to read too much into that as we feel there are areas we need to work on. It’s a good start though,” said Dube whose side had a quiet pre-season.
He added: “The objective is to collect as many points as possible in these first few games so that in the event that we hit a bad patch later on, we would have been far by then.”
With the rout, Chipangano swept to the top of the standings by virtue of a superior goal difference over Chicken Inn, 3-0 winners over Harare City on Saturday at Luveve Stadium.
Their match was a double header with Bantu Rovers and Black Rhinos which had been played earlier on.
The army outfit recorded a 1-0 win over the Premiership returnees.
“One is always disappointed of course with a loss but in terms of play, I am happy with the boys, what is needed now is for us to learn something from the mistakes we made and correct them in our next match,” said Bantu Rovers coach Methembe Ndlovu.
He said it was early days yet to start worrying about relegation and remained confident that the boys would rise to the occasion.
“A coach is as good as his last game. Focus is now on our next game, everything in my power will be done to get us on the winning track,” said Ndlovu.
Online Reporter