The Sunday Mail
Mehluli Sibanda in Bulawayo
Highlanders …………………… (0) 1
Black Rhinos ………………………..0
SUBSTITUTE Tinashe Makanda handed Highlanders their second consecutive win in four days when they dismissed Black Rhinos at Barbourfields yesterday.
Makanda scored the only goal of the match in the 67th minute after he fired home from a Prince Dube rebound five minutes after being brought on for Brian Banda.
Both teams wasted goal scoring opportunities but in the end, it was Makanda’s goal which made the difference.
Mandla “Lulu” Mpofu, the Highlanders coach, was pleased with the win over a team that went into this weekend’s action in third place.
“I am very happy with the three points that I took from a team that is currently playing beautiful football. They are not where they are at this moment by mistake, it’s because they are a good team. They have got good players, a young tactician, a young coach who has gone out and got some results when people thought he could not,’’ Mpofu said.
Yesterday’s win took Highlanders to 23 points and lifted them to ninth position.
The win over Chipembere also means that Bosso collected six points in just four days and ironically against defence forces sides. Last Wednesday, they beat Chapungu by a similar margin at the same venue.
“Six points in four days, obviously l am happy as a coach. l think today’s perfomance was better although it was not great in the first half. We were playing a team that wanted to fall back every time we tried to attack. We hope that going forward this momentum will get better,’’ said Mpofu.
The man who took over from Madinda Ndlovu at the beginning of last month is not getting carried away by his team’s purple patch.
“There is pressure of winning the next game so as we are celebrating today, we are already planning for the next game, asking ourselves how best to keep this momentum.
“This is very important. Going forward as a technical team, we have to dig even deeper to make sure that we continue getting these results”, Mpofu said.
Rhinos coach Hebert Maruwa felt that they momentarily lost concentration, which proved costly to them.
“We went to sleep for a second, that’s where the difference is. We tried to come back, we got our chances but we missed, its part of the game. We failed to contain Prince (Dube),’’ Maruwa said.
Teams
Highlanders: A Sibanda, B Banda (Makanda 63 mins), R Lunga (Phiri 90+2 mins), N Masuku, A Mbeba, T Ndlovu, P Muduhwa, M Sibanda, P Dube, B Sibanda (Silla 76 mins), D Mhindirira
Black Rhinos: A Rayners, T Jaravani, J Mukombwe, F Banda, E Chigiji, G Saunyama, W Taderera, F Zekumbawire (Demera 61 mins), L Murape (Mutudza 71 mins), W Kapinda (Mutasa 70 mins), B Homora
