Vusumuzi Dube
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
Hwange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1) 1
Cranborne Bullets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0
A LATE first half Brighton Makopa strike was the only difference between Hwange and Cranborne Bullets in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match played at Luveve Stadium in Bulawayo yesterday.
It was Makopa’s fourth goal of the season which makes him the league’s leading goal scorer.
Playing at “home” away in Bulawayo, it was Chipangano’s third win of the season in their first six matches.
Hwange’s victory meant that Cranborne remained winless and without scoring a goal during this season. For Hwange, the win took them to 10 points and fifth on the log.
Prior to the goal, there was nothing to write home about from both teams, as they both failed to keep possession and do anything with the ball.
However, the “visitors” dominated most of the proceedings in the first 45 minutes.
After being on the back foot for most of the proceedings, struggling to complete more than four passes at once, Hwange made an early substitution, bringing in Shepherd Gadzikwa to replace Blessing Ngoma with 40 minutes played.
Two minutes later, from a Canaan Nkomo pass, the red hot Makopa managed to put the ball past Tatenda Makoni in goals for the visitors and give Chipangano the lead, which they held onto until the end.
Despite the victory, Hwange coach Nation Dube was unimpressed with the way his charges played throughout the match, adding that travelling every week might be the reason for the poor football.
“Even now I cannot say I am happy with the way we played, the quality of football was not up to standard but we only scored.
That one (travelling even for ‘home games’) is really costing us, even for our training sessions, the planning is becoming tricky.
“We just got the result because of our fighting spirit because if we talk about playing football, we didn’t play football, we even failed to string three or four passes, we cannot say we were playing football, compared to the other team, they were really playing the ball and passing it around,” said Dube.
The visiting coach, Nesbert Saruchera believes that his side will get it right in time as they have been playing good football which has, however, failed to yield positive results.
After dominating most of the proceedings, Saruchera believes decision making let them down.
“I think it’s going to come very soon (positive results), I am happy with the performance but overally I am disappointed with the result but its work in progress.
I could blame it (failure to score) on decision making, when we are supposed to shoot we pass and when we are supposed to pass we shoot but we are going to correct it very soon,” said Saruchera.
Teams
Hwange: N Madeya, E Zulu, K Shiyandindi, B Mlotshwa, G Gumpo, C Tshuma (Gwitima 65 mins), T Muvuti (Courage Sibanda 57 mins), B Ngoma( Gadzikwa 40 mins), S Sithole (Lukas Sibanda 65 mins), B Makopa, C Nkomo
Cranborne Bullets: T Makoni, X Janatana, M Mushangwe, C Charakupa, N Gurende, E Manakore, Agrippa, V Mhandu (Daka 87 mins) T Chibunyu (Torovaseyi 77 mins), M Mudzuka (Ngwena 77 mins), K Mureremba, S Munhira — Follow on Twitter @brandon_malvin
Online Reporter