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Bulls hold Dembare

Sport
Henry Mhara Sports Reporter Motor Action . . . . . . . . . 0 Dynamos . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 League champions Dynamos rode their luck and escaped with a point in a goalless draw against Motor Action in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League […]

Henry Mhara Sports Reporter Motor Action . . . . . . . . . 0 Dynamos . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 League champions Dynamos rode their luck and escaped with a point in a goalless draw against Motor Action in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match at Rufaro Stadium yesterday.

The Mighty Bulls, who were clearly the better side had a goal disallowed for offside, hit the upright and wasted two one-on-one opportunities.

Dynamos were just out of sorts, failing to mount meaningful attacks, except for two rare opportunities, to punish their wasteful opponents.

With the draw, Dynamos maintained their second spot on the log with 17 points, five points behind log leaders Highlanders, who beat Shabanie Mine 2-0 yesterday.

Dynamos are in danger of losing the second spot if third-placed FC Platinum, who are on 15 points, beat Caps United today.

Motor Action remained on sixth position with 14 points.

Mighty Bulls coach Joey Antipas said his side deserved to win the match.

“From today’s game, I feel it’s two points dropped than a point gained. We scored a goal, but it was disallowed, for what reason? For me it was a genuine goal, but it was just unfortunate. We just have to continue like this and try to lift ourselves on the log table. The good thing is that we are creating chances,” said Antipas.

His opposite Kalisto Pasuwa conceded his team were very lucky to come out with a point. He blamed the poor showing on the absence of key players Denver Mukamba and Patson Jaure.

“It was a tough match for us and most of the time we were second to the ball. But under these circumstance I’m operating under, I think the draw is a fair result. The absence of these players, especially Denver Mukamba, affected us a lot. He always comes with those runs and long shots outside the box, but we went for almost 45 minutes without a shot on target. But it’s a challenge to other players to rise to the occasion, not to have a situation that when Denver is not playing, then the whole team is dead,” said Pasuwa.

Motor Action played well and should have won the match, but some wayward shooting let them down. Norman Maroto had the chance to punish his former side, but failed to connect an Yves Ebabali cross earlier on.

He had a chance to redeem himself on 20 minutes when he latched onto a Washington Arubi block, but surprisingly, he hit the rebound wide. Had he left the ball, it could have trickled into the nets on its own.

Ebabali though could have broken the deadlock on 43 minutes when his diagonal shot beat Arubi, but it hit the upright and defender George Magariro cleared.

Five minutes after the halftime break, the same culprit, Ebabali, raced through, but shot wide with Arubi at his mercy.

On the other end Derick Kabwe shot over the bar before Takesure Chinyama shot straight at Jani. Moments later, Maroto headed past Arubi after a goalmouth melee, but referee Norman Matemera ruled off the effort for off side.

Mutuma had a chance to punish Motor Action when he met a cross from the left, but his powerful header was saved by Jani.