Pressure mounts on Nomads coach

Pressure is mounting on Mighty Wanderers FC coach Franco Ndawa following the team’s recent string of poor results.

Ndawa was subjected to a torrid time by a section of the fans, who turned on him as the reality and pain of a string of losses became inevitable, especially after Saturday’s 1-0 loss to arch-rivals Big Bullets in a Carlsberg Malawi Charity Shield showdown.

It was the third successive loss for the Nomads after their Super League defeats to Civo United (3-2) and Kamuzu Barracks (1-0) in Lilongwe the previous weekend.

A section of the disgruntled fans were overheard baying for Ndawa’s blood as they chanted: “coach achoke! (the coach should be fired!)”

However, Ndawa kept his cool insisting that he was not moved by the calls.

“I am not worried with the prospect of being fired.

“After all, there are a number of teams that are after my services,” Ndawa told the media soon after Sunday’s game.

He also said there is more to the Nomads’ woes than meets the eye.

“As a professional coach I cannot go into details, but we have some internal problems that have contributed to the team’s recent poor results,” said Ndawa.

The Nomads mentor also stated that he was not worried with the loss to their rivals saying his team failed to make use of a plethora of chances they created.

“We had chances, but we failed to make good use of them. But I am not worried. After all this was just more or less a friendly match and we beat them [Bullets in a league game]. I am absolutely certain that we’ll turn the corner,” he said.

The club’s supporters are reported to have met on Thursday at their Chichiri clubhouse on Thursday where they recommended that the coaching panel should be given a four-game ultimatum.

However, the club’s supporters committee chairperson Yona Green-Malunga could neither confirm nor deny the development and could only say: “As Wanderers supporters we are concerned with the team’s continued poor run and we want the executive committee to address the situation.”

The Nomads’ general secretary David Kanyenda said they would go back to the drawing board and chart the way forward.

“That [the team’s three successive losses] is the matter that the executive committee will deliberate, but at the meantime there has been no decision.

“We’ll review the situation after the first round of the Super League as we are left with four games, but the mandate on the future of the technical panel rests in the hands of the entire executive committee and not one man only.

“We’ll have to find out the problem and radical measures will be applied,” said Kanyenda.