Philani Ncube
Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
BARELY a month into the 2016 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season, relegation indicators are already pointing to the newly promoted sides Bulawayo City, Ngezi Platinum, Border Strikers and Mutare City Rovers. Only Ngezi Platinum have managed to register a victory from their three rounds of matches and sit seventh on the league table with four points after also drawing one game.
The other three newly promoted clubs, City, Strikers and Rovers have found the going tough in the big-boys’ league and occupy the bottom three positions on the table. Will the newcomers get out of the relegation zone? At whose expense?
Rovers suffered their third consecutive loss at the weekend, going down 1-2 at home to Dynamos, to hand the former champions their first victory of the season. The Mutare-based outfit, whose porous defence has let in nine goals in three matches, anchors the table. Rovers are on zero points with Beitbridge side Strikers, who lost 0-1 to 10-man Triangle United on Sunday.
A consolation for City, who drew 1-1 away to ZPC Kariba is that with two points, they are just a point behind Tsholotsho FC, Hwange, Chapungu and Harare City, meaning should they win their next game and one of the four loses, they’ll move up the ladder.
City’s next game is a derby against Highlanders, who narrowly edged Tsholotsho 2-1 at the weekend. City’s technical department led by Philani Ncube arrived in time from Kariba to watch the Tsholotsho-Highlanders game at Barbourfields Stadium. The municipal side were beaten 0-1 by Highlanders in a pre-season tournament and have to work on their potency and defensive abilities to overcome Bosso.
Ncube should not rely much on what he saw on Sunday as Highlanders, who were exposed a lot at the back, said they would work on these defensive frailties. “We won the game, but I’m not happy with the way we defended. We gave the opponent too much space to play the ball, which meant they created lots of scoring chances. We’ve to work on that before our next game,” said Highlanders coach Erol Akbay.
Highlanders’ defence was exposed by lack of positional discipline by anchorman Simon Munawa. Munawa was out of position, forcing attacking linkman King Nadolo to drop back and help the defence.
Ncube noted Highlanders’ problems, but said his concern was to get a victory soon.
“I think we rued missed opportunities in Kariba, but everything is gradually coming out. I’m not worried about how other teams play; my concern is getting our attack and defence right. The transition from defence to attack and vice-versa has to be ok if we’re to win the coming game, which I hope will be soon,” said Ncube.
He is confident that they will move out of the relegation zone and survive the chop. “We’re in the league to stay and we’re not thinking of relegation, but getting our act together. It’s early days to talk about relegation or the championship because there are 27 games left, but we still can’t afford to relax,” he said.
City drew 2-2 against How Mine in the opening match of the season and lost 0-1 to Tsholotsho before their trip to Kariba. How Mine held champions Chicken Inn to a goalless draw, a result that cost the title holders top spot. FC Platinum, who beat Chapungu 1-0 through a hotly contested penalty, now top the table.
The Gamecocks are presently third, tied on seven points with second-placed Caps United, who came from a goal down to beat Harare City 2-1 in the capital.
Results
Saturday: Chicken Inn 0-0 How Mine, ZPC Kariba 1-1 Bulawayo City, FC Platinum 1-0 Chapungu
Sunday: Triangle United 1-0 Border Strikers, Tsholotsho FC 1-2 Highlanders, Caps United 2-1 Harare City, Mutare City Rovers 1-2 Dynamos, Hwange 2-0 Ngezi Platinum Stars