WE WON’T GO DOWN, SAYS DEFIANT CHAMINUKA

Bruce Chikuni

Sports Reporter

IT’S getting worse at Dynamos who now need at least eight wins in their last 14 fixtures of the season, to survive RELEGATION.

At this point of the season, it is impossible to stop Karoi United fans from imagining the possibility of hosting DeMbare in a ZIFA Northern Region Division One Soccer League fixture.

It is hard to believe but that is the brutal reality, anyway. Amazingly, their coach Saul Chaminuka continues to insist the Glamour Boys will survive the chop. “We have 14 games left, that’s 42 points to fight for,” he said.

“We will not go down. Yes, we’re in a rough patch, but there are 10 teams around us. Two consecutive wins could change everything.”

Of course, Chaminuka knows how it feels to go down because he was in charge of Black Rhinos when they were relegated.

Dynamos, though, don’t know what it feels like to be relegated. DeMbare were condemned to their EIGHTH loss of the season by TelOne at Ascot on Saturday.

The irony of it all was that this latest punishment was masterminded by Herbert Maruwa, the coach the DeMbare leadership fired.

The man who was the DeMbare captain last season, Frank Makarati, is now the skipper at TelOne. The Glamour Boys have registered 15 points in 19 games.

And, they also face the possibility of suffering another loss, and conceding three more goals, in a boardroom decision related to their abandoned league match against FC Platinum.

Chaminuka ordered his troops off the pitch as he protested against the referee’s decision to award Norman Mapeza’s men a late penalty at Mandava.

Such has been the Glamour Boys’ stunning decline that the better odds were on TelOne winning the match on Saturday.

What we probably didn’t know was how many goals the hosts would score.

In the end, they needed only one goal which was scored by Washington Navaya to condemn the Glamour Boys to yet another defeat.

Navaya now leads the Golden Boot race with 11 goals. The victory gave Maruwa the freedom to declare that he is now going for the championship. They are now seven points off the pace.

“I am happy to be on the winning side after a couple of draws in the past matches. It’s not only a win, but it was against Dynamos and we did it in style. After this win, I think we are now challenging for the championship, that is a declaration,” he said.