Front PageNational Sports

The chase goes on

Nyasa Big Bullets and Be Forward Wanderers continue to parade an awesome show of force in their pursuit of the TNM Super League title after they once again, bagged full points on Sunday.

At Silver Stadium in Lilongwe, Bullets overcame adverse rainy conditions to beat Silver Strikers 1-0 to keep their title defence hopes nicely on the boil.

The Nomads also continued to breathe down their  neck with a 2-1 victory over Karonga United at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.

With three games left each, the People’s Team and the Nomads are still separated by a point. Bullets remain at the summit of the 16-team league with 61 points.

Karonga’s Bakilinho Mwakanyango (in blue) blocks Babatunde

Chimwemwe Idana scored the lone goal for Bullets after a melee in the box to make the most of veteran winger Fischer  Kondowe’s cross in the 75th minute just when it looked like the contest was headed for a stalemate.

Mike Tetteh nearly equalised for Silver when KhudaMuyaba set him up in the box but the Ghanaian, who was unmarked, shot over the bar.

Rains disturbed play as the pitch could not drain the water quickly and the match was nearly abandoned as Bullets protested the condition of the pitch.

The rains continued at half time making the pitch unplayable.  After close to 25 minutes of consultations,  referee Alfred Chilinda ruled that the game should go on.

After the match, an excited Bullets coach CallistoPasuwa praised his players for their resilience.

“It was a tough game, very difficult playing on a muddy pitch. Our strategy was to play direct football. I am glad that the boys have pulled a result under such difficult circumstances. We needed to win this game,” he said.

Silver assistant coach Abbas Makawa was modest in the loss, saying the conditions made the game difficult.

Silver have now dropped to fourth from third. They are tied on 50 points with Blue Eagles who have overtaken them courtesy of a better goal difference following a 4-0 massacre of SavendaChitipa United.

At Kamuzu Stadium, goals from ZiccoMkanda and Peter Cholopi ensured that the Nomads kept piling pressure on Bullets. Despite being two goals down at some point, Karonga fought their lungs out and got a consolation through MeshakSeleman, but it was too little too late.

The match was not without drama as some Nomads fans bayed for referees’ blood at half time.

On the pitch, Mkanda who was thrown in as a substitute for BabatundeAdepoju,  scored the first goal for Wanderers in the 65th minute after receiving a neat pass from Ted Sumani inside the penalty.

The hosts doubled the lead in the 75th minute through Cholopi.  The visitors pulled one back in the 83rd minute when they were awaerded a penalty and  Seleman made no mistake to beat Nomads’ goalkeeper William Thole.

In a post-match interview, Wanderers coach Bob Mpinganjira said: “We started badly, but we recovered and I am, happy we have [bagged] maximum points.”  

Karonga coach Dan Dzinkambani blamed the loss on acts of intimidation from Nomads fans..

“Wanderers supporters were all over, they stripped our official thinking he had some juju and found nothing, that affected our game plan,” he said. 

Related Articles

Back to top button