Nomads get hearty welcome

It was all joy in the blue side of town on Sunday evening as Mighty Wanderers fans gave their team a hearty welcome on arrival from Lilongwe following their K20 million (about $66 666) Standard Bank Knockout Trophy triumph.

Spontaneous parties erupted in and around bars and open-air joints as jubilant Nomads fans celebrated their team’s significant triumph—it was certainly a blue night and the Nomads faithful could not be blamed if at all they felt like flying.

Hundreds of nyerere  travelled to Zalewa Roadblock from Blantyre to give their team a rapturous welcome.

The fans cheered as flamboyant supporters committee head Yona Green-Malunga hoisted the trophy in a pickup while singing the popular Kuli nyerere ku manoma and Mulungu adalitse manoma.

The day belonged to the Nomads and the team was given a hero’s send-off as they started off from Lilongwe in the morning led by their chairperson George Chamangwana.

Some excited fans escorted the team all the way to Dedza Roadblock where they stopped briefly to celebrate with fans who gathered to get a glimpse of the cup and their heroes as they danced jigs of celebration.

From Dedza, the Nomads then had a stopover at Ntcheu where thousands of fans also converged to salute their team for a job well done.

The team then proceeded to Balaka where they stopped for a while and celebrated with the fans, but the real show was reserved for Zalewa Roadblock and Lunzu where the atmosphere was absolutely spectacular.

The climax of it all was at their Lali Lubani Road clubhouse where the team arrived at around 7.30pm amid pomp and jubilation. They dined and wined up to around midnight.

Chamangwana and Malunga described the triumph as historic because it was the first time that the Nomads had won the Standard Bank Knockout Trophy.

Said Chamangwana: “Of course, we were the first team to win the cup when it was called FAM Cup, but deep down our hearts we felt it was incomplete because we had not won it since Standard Bank started sponsoring the cup.”

Malunga said: “This is our time to bask in the sun and we’ll ask the club’s management to allow us to storm the townships later this week so that we can show our fans the cup.

“We appreciate the reception we got from our fans starting from Lilongwe right up to Blantyre.

“The victory is even more significant in that we are now at par in the contest for [Carlsberg Malawi] sponsorship with Bullets,” said Malunga.