Joey Antipas
Senior Sports Reporter
Chicken Inn 1-2 Triangle United
IT was an afternoon in which the two goalkeepers stole the show for contrasting reasons as defending champions Chicken Inn went down to visiting Triangle United in a Castle Lager Premiership match played before a virtually empty Luveve Stadium yesterday. A moment of madness by the usually dependable Chicken Inn goalkeeper Elvis Chipezeze in the 76th minute that even surprised goalscorer Simba Makoni, earned the Lowveld side maximum points.
Makoni found himself unattended but in possession a few metres from the centre line and in what could have riled his coach David Mandigora, decided to take a crack at goal from that distance.
Chipezeze, for reasons best known to himself, decided to do some showboating by diving only to literally punch the ball into his own goal to gift Triangle the win. This was after their first half lead had been cancelled by a Clemence Matawu beauty in the 52nd minute.
While Chipezeze produced a single moment of madness, his opposite number Ronald Mudimu had many moments of brilliance that denied Chicken Inn an avalanche of goals.
“We played well and created many chances but their goalkeeper was in top form,” conceded assistant coach Prince Matore.
The match kicked off with champions Chicken Inn forcing a corner kick as early as the second minute when outstanding skipper Danny Phiri sent in a curling cross from just outside the box that proved too difficult for Kudzai Chigwida to clear. He only managed to screw the ball out for a corner.
In the 5th minute, Thabani Goredema, who had a rather subdued game in midfield, found himself unmarked in the arc but instead of being cool, hurriedly took a shot, a tame one for that matter, which gave the visitors’ goalkeeper Mudimu no trouble at all.
The home side was asking questions again in the 14th minute although Edmore Chirambadare’s shot was off target. Triangle United went one up four minutes before the breather through a Malvern Gaki grounder from inside the box after the Chicken Inn defence of Moses Jackson and Teenage Hadebe failed to deal with a cross from the left side. Hadebe though had a decent debut game.
The second half saw outgoing gaffer Joe Antipas making a double substitution, taking out an ineffective Thabani Goredema for Obadiah Tarumbwa while Moses Demera came in for Michelle Katsvairo.
The change brought some urgency in the home side and they were duly rewarded after some beautiful build-ups that ended with Tarumbwa laying a sitter for Matawu who responded with a lawn mower to beat a diving Mudimu all systems out.
“We’re happy we managed to pick our first set of three points on the road. We were under a lot of pressure from the home side though,” said veteran gaffer Mandigora.
Teams:
Chicken Inn: Elvis Chipezeze, Teenage Hadebe, Passmore Bernard, George Majika (Pride Tafirenyika 86th min),Devine Lunga, Clemence Matawu, Moses Jackson, Edmore Chirambadare, Danny Phiri,
Thabani Goredema (Obadiah Tarumbwa 46th min), Michelle Katsvairo (Moses Demera 46th min),
Triangle: Ronald Mudimu, Brian Juwayeyi (Donald Dzvinyai 55th min), Ralph Kawondera, Kudzai Chigwida, Guthrie Zhokinyu, Tendai Huwa, Hardlife Muvindi, Malvern Gaki (Charles Mukonhairi 61st min) , Courage Dennias, Lameck Nhamo (Dzingai Chirambamuriwo 72nd min ), Simba Makoni