Rovers’ losing start

Ray Bande Senior Weekender Reporter
THE zifa Eastern Region Division One season got underway with Premiership promotional perennial hopefuls — Mutare City Rovers — on the receiving end in the opening round of league matches last weekend.

Magusha, as City Rovers are adoringly referred to by their obsessive fans, drawn mainly from the Mutare Municipality workforce especially the police department, suffered a 0-1 away defeat at the hands of Chiredzi United.

The Mutare side is fast gaining the perennial bridesmaid tag after finishing third upon their promotion from Division Two in 2011 before ending the season on second position in three successive seasons since 2012 in the zifa Easatern Region Division One League.

Not even the recent Marsmery Travel and Couches donation of 36 tracksuits and 36 warm-up T-shirts as well as the company’s pledge to chip in with funding could inspire the municipality outfit to a memorable season-opening victory.

Tatenda Nhamarare, the team patron and mayor of Mutare, was an elated man during the donation handover ceremony as he expressed hope that the contribution from Marsmery could not have come at a better time.

“We are very happy and excited with this partnership and donation.

“This partnership will help in motivating the players. As a team, we hope to repay this by winning promotion into the Premier League this season. We want to thank Marsmery for remembering us during these difficult moments. We are inviting other partners and the corporate world to come forward with their contributions so that we fulfil our dream,” said Nhamarare, who was with chamber secretary Gladys Muneta as they received the donation last Friday at the Mayor’s Parlour.

A total of 16 of the 18 teams participated in Match Day One league fixtures, while Mutare Polytechnic failed to travel to Renco Mine, hence Renco getting the 3-0 walkover win over Poly. Pre-season favourites to clinch the coveted promotion into the Premier League among the teams in the zifa Eastern Region Division One 2015 season remain the duo of Mutare City Rovers and Masvingo City Dortmund — a seemingly organised breakaway outfit from Masvingo United as well as dark horses Ruwa Gunners.

Given the hunger for Premiership football in the country’s oldest town of Masvingo after years of Division One football following the relegation of Masvingo United from the top-flight league, Rovers know full well that it will be a fiery battle for promotion on and off the field of play against the Masvingo outfit.

And City Rovers coach Kenny ‘‘Bokande’’ Kachara understands that his team needs to collect as much points as they can especially in these early days.

“We are aware that we need to get as many points as we can in these early days and ensure that we open a gap to give our competitors a tough time. It is unfortunate that we lost away to Chiredzi, but we had a good game. We normally do not want to speak about referees, but the officiating was terrible. Even the free-kick that the hosts were awarded and resulted in their goal was just not a fair call at all.

“We dominated play from the onset of the match to the final whistle, but we somehow failed to convert the chances we created. We are working on improving accuracy in front of goal and sincerely hope that we will get it right against Masvingo United at home.

“Obviously we really need to win against Masvingo United having lost our first match. We are aware that we need to collect as many points as we can especially in these early matches so that we make life difficult for our competitors later in the season,” said Kachara.

Match Day One results:

Chiredzi 1, Mutare City Rovers 0; Masvingo United 0, Ruwa Gunners 1; FC Three Leaves 0, Hartley Academy 1; Mwenezana 1, Mutoko Traders 0; Prima Rangers 4, Melfort 0; Gutu 0, Masvingo City Dortmund 1; Surrey 0, Tenax 0; Renco Mine 3, Mutare Polytechnic 0 (w/o); Black Eagles 0, Gaza Gunners 2:

Match Day Two Fixtures:

Mutare City Rovers v Masvingo United; Tanex v Renco Mine; Masvingo City Dortmund v Surrey; Melfort v Gutu; Mutoko Traders v Prime Rangers; Hartley Aacdemy v Mwenezana; Ruwa Gunners v FC Three Leaves; Gaza Gunners v Chiredzi.