adminRay Bande Senior Sports Reporter
FOUR teams will eventually be axed from the Castle Lager Premiership when the curtain comes down on the 2015 season and only four rounds of league matches are remaining before identity of those teams is confirmed. As it stands, Manicaland could be left without a single team in the domestic top flight league as chances for survival for the two teams based in the region – Buffaloes and Dongo Sawmills – are getting thinner with each passing week.
While Buffaloes still enjoy a seemingly healthier chance for survival compared to their counterparts Dongo Sawmills who are now hanging by a thread and it could be just a matter of time before they are officially relegated from the top flight league. The relegation dogfight now appears to have been reduced to a Buffaloes Thoslotso affair with the Mutare side in a more precarious situation. Post Sport explores the permutations and possible outcomes of this battle for survival.
Tsholotsho
All of a sudden Tsholotsho seem to be relatively safer than Buffaloes given the fixtures ahead for the two teams in the four remaining rounds of league matches. The Bulawayo side has suddenly showed signs of resurgence and have since frog jumped Buffaloes to settle fifth from bottom. With the same number of points with the Mutare soldiers, Thsolothso enjoy a healthier goal difference that puts them above Saul Chaminuka’s side.
Thsolothso can easily become the bookmakers’ favourites to survive ahead of Buffaloes, if their impressive recent form is anything to go by. Thsolotsho secretary Melody Ndlovu told Post Sport that her team will not be relegated come the end of the season. “We are not going to be relegated. We are quite confident about that.
In fact, we are looking forward to getting all the 12 points in teh remaining four matches. We really cannot say much but assure everyone that Thsolothso will be part of the Premiership once again next season,’ she said. Remaining matches: Hwange (away); Harare City (home); Highlanders (away); Chicken Inn (home):
Buffaloes
Buffaloes are becoming used to fighting for dear life on the last day of the season and it appears the 2015 season presents a similar scenario for Chaminuka and his men. Buffaloes had the chance to ease their relegation woes when they played host to Thsolotsho and Hwange in the most recent two league matches at Sakubva stadium.
But this time around it could be trick one for them.
That they lost to Thsolotsho and drew with Hwange at home at Sakubva makes it difficult to keep the hope that they will beat Highlanders, Triangle, Dynamos or even ZPC Kariba – the four teams that they will play in their remaining matches of the season.Somehow, Chaminuka’s men conspired to disappoint their fans when they dropped five crucial points that could have made their job lighter in this battle to evade the chop, only if they had won both matches.
The Mutare top flight league outfit sunk deeper into the murky waters of relegation when they were defeated by a slender 1-0 margin against Hwange in a Castle Lager Premiership encounter played at Sakubva stadium on Sunday.
Barely a fortnight ago, the Mutare soldiers dropped two points at home when they had to come from behind to snatch a point against fellow relegation candidates Thsolothso and now prospects of playing in the less fashionable Division One are increasing with each passing round of league matches. Remaining matches: Highlanders (away); ZPC Kariba (home); Triangle (away); Dynamos (home):
Flame Lilly
With 24 points and lying third from bottom, two behind Buffaloes and Tsholothso, Flame Lilly are highly likely going to be playing in Division One football next season after one season in the top flight league. Just like their fellow Premiership newboys, WhaWha have had a difficult season in which they became mere punching bags of teams that have always been in the domestic top flight league.
WhaWha
Although they still have a mathematical chance to survive, just like all the teams making up the bottom three, HwaHwa would need divine intervention for them to survive relegation, judging by their form in recent weeks let alone since the start of the season. The correctional services outfit are lying second from the bottom with 20 points. Their coach Lloyd Mutasa conceded that it would take something next to a miracle for his team to survive.
“As long as you still have the chance to survive you keep hanging in there hoping that something better will happen. We still have a mathematical chance but it will be a tall order for us to survive because of the position that we now find ourselves in.
“Our destiny is no longer in our hands. All we are doing is to concentrate on our remaining matches and play each of them as they come,’ said Mutasa. Remaining matches: Chicken Inn (home); Flame Lilly (home); Harare City (away); CAPS United (away):
Dongo Sawmills
Dongo Sawmills owner Francis Dongo has thrown in the towel saying hoping to survive is just like expecting the sun to rise from the west.“We are down and out. There is no way we can fight for survival anymore in the prevailing circumstances. We placed ourselves in a difficult position and we cannot expect to perform a miracle in the last four matches.
“There is no way we can expect to be in the Premiership again next season. We had our lesson and the situation was worsened by the fact that our technical department refused to cooperate when we wanted to make changes in the technical department.
I don’t think I wanted to throw them away. No, but I expected them to accept in time that they needed assistance in the form of a different head coach whom they would work with but they refused adamantly,” said Dongo. Remaining matches: Triangle (away); Dynamos (home); How Mine (away); FC Platinum (home):
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