Telone FC..........................(1)1
Manica Diamonds..............(2)2
REFEREE Mercy Mayimbo made some huge blunders that infuriated the TelOne faithfuls as they suffered a gut-wrenching 2-1 loss to Manica Diamonds at Ascot Stadium yesterday.
Liberty Masveure and Lawrence Masibera scored two first-half goals as Manica Diamonds came back from behind after Eriya Mafirenyika's opener, piling more misery on TelOne, whose poor streak continues.
However, the boiling point of the match came in the second half when Mayimbo turned down what would have been Tawanda Macheke's second goal of the season, just after the hour mark.
Macheke headed home a Prince Milanzi cross from a good position, but it was ruled offside by the female referee in consultation with her linesman, Peter Kalota.
Mayimbo was again in the spotlight as she denied the Wifi Boys a genuine penalty when goalkeeper Godfrey Chitsumba failed to deal with a cross before hugging and pulling down Macheke, who was in a good position to score.
That left TelOne coach Saul Chaminuka furiating after his team eventually lost at home, with their search for a win continuing. Chaminuka was left asking, "Why play if referees already have the result?"
"Very difficult. I look at it every day. I'm the first to go to the hospital. All I see is probably something like a conspiracy. I don't know. The officiating, I don't want to be talking about officiating anymore. We're talking about football. I want to talk about the tactics.
"But then the players have done what they need to do, and someone decides. And now you fail to understand what's really going on. When is the same thing, it's quite a good goal that you allow. It's a goal that's supposed to be. Find one team asking themselves questions. Are we defending well? Are we playing well? And I don't know... It's something that I don't know how to look at.
"We work every day with the boys, and we're saying this is how to play this game. And they do exactly that. Score goals, and they are a team. I don't know. I don't know exactly. I don't know," Chaminuka added.
"I don't know why officials who come to a game of football and then they have results, and why are we playing if they have results all the time? Why are we playing football? Why are we playing? We spend plenty of time working and working on players. This is how we want things done. They do it, and the referee just decides."