McCarthy Dube was the toast of the day as relegated Bantu Rovers stunned visiting ZPC Kariba in a lunchtime Castle Lager Premier Soccer League kick off match at Luveve Stadium yesterday.
BY SAKHELENI NXUMALO Bantu Rovers……….(0)2 ZPC Kariba……………….0
The 19-year-old former Highlanders junior player was on target for Tshintsha Guluva’s opening goal on the 80th minute before setting up Nigel Papias’ for his team’s second goal five minutes later.
The result is not a true reflection of how the match transpired as the visitors dominated from the onset, but at the end of the day, paid the price for their failure to take their chances.
Veteran coach Sunday Chidzambwa described his team’s performance as the highest level of complacency.
“It was a very poor performance from our side as we could have won the game in the first half, but we blew away several easy scoring chances. This was complacency at its highest level. We had warned the players at training and also before the match, but there is simply nothing that you can do from the bench. It’s all of us to blame and its back to the drawing board,” he said.
Bantu Rovers team manager Agent Sawu said his charges had shown character to bounce back from a shattering 5-0 loss to Harare City in their previous match.
“It’s a positive result for us as we were coming from a heavy defeat and our boys showed character. We are happy with their performance and attitude. We are left with five games in the season and our target is to collect 15 points,” Sawu said.
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The hosts defended deep and relied on counter attacks and this ploy eventually brought them dividends.
ZPC Kariba keeper Tendai Hove must take the blame for Rovers’ opener after he failed to hold onto a headed back pass by Ghanaian defender Sylvester Appiah and Dube pounced on the spill to poke the ball home.
And as the visitors poured forward in search of an equaliser, Bantu launched a counter attack that saw Dube feeding a beautiful pass that sent Papias through.
Bottom-placed Rovers took their points tally to 16 following yesterday’s win which was their fourth of the season.
Teams
Bantu Rovers: E Sibanda, K Dzingwe, N Garayi, S Nyahwa, D Ndlovu, M Chitambwe, R Masuku, L Ndlela, B Ncube, N Papias, M Dube. ZPC Kariba: T Hove, B Zuberi, D Phiri, S Appiah, A Chivheya, T Munyanduri, D Chakupe (L Chikafa 65), T Chamboko (T Nyamandwe 65), N Tigere, R Manuvire, F Zekumbawire (L Fiyado 58).
