BY HENRY MHARA
HARARE City coach Mark Harrison has called for an immediate response from his players against Highlanders at Rufaro Stadium tomorrow following successive defeats in their opening two matches.
The Sunshine Boys lost to champions FC Platinum in their opening fixture, before giving away a goal lead to lose 3-1 against newboys Manica Diamonds last week.
It was the shambolic manner in which City collapsed against Manica that left Harrison fuming, and he believes the players owe him a response when the Bulawayo giants arrive.
“The Highlanders game is normally a big game anyway, but after the fact that we lost our first two games, it’s even bigger and obviously I was very disappointed last week by our performance against Manica. In the end, if you perform results tend to follow and if you don’t perform you don’t get results. On Saturday, it will be extremely important that we come up with a good performance, and if we do that I’m sure we will get a good result. We will have to perform, play football the way we can and we have to be brave to do it,” Harrison said.
Harrison has vowed to shake up his starting line-up, having been critical of some of his senior players’ application in the defeat at Gibbo. Youngsters like Tatenda Tumba, Pio Tellmore and Learnmore Muyambo will all hope to be given a chance to feature for the team.
“There will be changes; I can’t accept that kind of performance. It’s not acceptable in anybody’s book so there would be changes and I’m expecting a response. If seniors can’t do it, then you look to the younger players to do it. Against Manica, it was a shocking performance from everybody. It was low key; players were sleepwalking on the field. It was dreadful. That’s why there would be changes because there should be a stimulation. If there isn’t a response, then we won’t get a result that we want. It’s a tough game (against Highlanders), they are a big team, and there are always up for a fight, so I expect a tough challenge.”
