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Takudzwa Chitsiga
Sports Reporter
SIMBISA Brands were promoted to the ZIFA Northern Region Division One Soccer league after they defeated Royal Stars 2-0 in the play-offs at Harare Polytech Grounds at the weekend.
The Harare Province Division Two A winners faced off with the Harare Province Division One B winners to decide who gets the sole ticket to the Northern Region League Division One.
Second half goals from Taurai Muranganwa in the 49th minute and Tinashe Gondokondo (90th minute) were enough to win it for Simbisa Brands.
The team joins Shamva Mine and Norton Community, who were also promoted from Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland West. Simbisa Brands executive, Tapiwa Kayaza, said:
“We are happy to be joining ZIFA Northern Region Division One for next season.
“We were well prepared for this match and we are happy that we managed to win.
“We regrouped a few weeks ago and we were training hard for the play-offs ever since they were confirmed.
“It was a good revenge for us as we also lost to them in the Champions of Champions where they defeated us 1-0.
“We are not going to add numbers to the league but we will be competing.
“The first year, we will be fighting to maintain our place in the league and we will try and fight for the championship in our second year.”
Royal Stars coach, Nicholas Gora, was left a dejected man and said they were going to challenge for honours in Division Two.
“The game was very tough and we were unfortunate but we will remain focused.
“We had received a letter of confirmation that we were promoted but during the off-season we were told to play the play-offs and we are not happy,” said Gora.
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