Injuries cripple Harare City

By The Standard and Newsday | Mar. 11, 2022 | 2 Min read

Chicken Inn have dropped just three points from the first six matches and currently sit at the top of the table, while Harare city are 12 points behind having won just once so far this term.

BY COURAGE NYAYA Harare City will be without three key players when they take on Chicken Inn in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match at the National Sports Stadium tomorrow, but the Sunshine Boys are still hoping to clip the GameCocks’ wings.

Chicken Inn have dropped just three points from the first six matches and currently sit at the top of the table, while Harare city are 12 points behind having won just once so far this term.

A cursory look at the head-to-head records, Harare City will probably draw confidence from that as they won three of their last five meetings with the Joey Antipas-coached side.

“We play Chicken Inn on Saturday, our team is crippled by injuries to key players with only Timothy January, Tinashe Muleya and Jerry Chipangura available from our regular starters, but we are rearing to go knowing very well we are up against pacesetters perhaps one of the most consistent teams in the league in the past four to five years. We need to up our game so as to improve our position on the log which at the moment is not looking good. We will give our best short and redeem ourselves having lost the last game against FC Platinum,” Mangwiro said.

Though they are on a good run, having won all of their last four matches Chicken Inn’s Antipas is taking the match with pinch of salt as he is aware of the danger his counterpart is capable of and is seeing the match as a difficult task.

“Another challenging assignment, Harare City are another team that is good and organised so it’s a game we cannot take for granted, there are no pushovers in the league so its game on. We are on top yes, but we expect pressure because all teams will be gunning to plot your downfall. No injuries on the front, Shepherd Mhlanga comes back in after missing last weekend due to a slight knock,” he said.

Harare City currently sit 11th on the 18 team table with six points to their tally and know that they can easily get sucked into the relegation dog fight.

They have been reinvented this season after losing coach Lloyd Chitembwe, who retraced his footsteps back to Caps United and took with his, defender Marshal Machazane and forward William Manondo.