The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
Chicken Inn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (2) 2
Herentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0
REFEREE Jimmy Makwanda was the main talking point after Chicken Inn’s victory over Herentals at Luveve Stadium yesterday as he made questionable decisions that seemed to favour the visitors in a Castle Lager Premiership tie.
Makwanda, who was also in the spotlight three weeks ago for dubious officiating, failed to take charge of the game as he failed to caution Herentals players for flouting the game’s rules.
The centre man left fans with more questions than answers when he did not take any action to caution or send off Tinotenda Benza in the 56th minute when he seemed to deliberately kick Chicken Inn goalkeeper, Elvis Chipezeze in the groin in an unwarranted challenge as the latter secured the ball high up in the air. The injury saw Chipezeze being substituted later on in the game.
Makwanda had earlier on given William Kapumha a yellow card after a dangerous lunge at evergreen Clemence Matawu, who later had to be substituted due to the injury, in what should also have been a sending off.
Pride Zendera, who came in for Chipezeze, was also a victim of crude tackling by Carlos Mavhurume in the 74th minute, a sign Herentals players knew they could get away with hard tackling.
Chicken Inn coach, Joey Antipas attributed his team’s poor performance in the later stages to failure by the referee to “protect” them.
He urged Herentals coach, Kumbirai Mutiwekuziwa to teach his players to play the ball and not to kick opponents.
Three weeks ago Makwanda was singled out as the reason Herentals managed to walk away with a point from Vengere against Mutare City due to dubious officiating. Aside from the poor officiating, Chicken Inn secured the match with two first half goals from Innocent Mucheneka and veteran Obadiah Tarumbwa to stem a bad spell that saw them lose their last two matches.
The home side kicked off the match in blistering pace and looked like they would overrun the Premiership new boys and four minutes into the game Mucheneka put Chicken Inn into the lead after running into the box and meeting a cross from Passmore Bernard which he headed into the nets.
Twelve minutes later, Darryl Nyandoro made a clinical pass from the left to Tarumbwa, who beat an advancing Frank Kuchineyi, who was in-between the posts for Herentals.
Herentals came into the second half a better side following the substitution of team owner, Innocent Benza in the 50th minute, dominating the better part of the half but they could not find the goal.
Makwanda gave Herentals a penalty after a Chicken Inn player handled inside the box, in what looked like ball to hand incident but Blessing Maunganidze missed an opportunity to give his side a face saver as his poorly taken spot kick was saved by Zendera.
Teams
Chicken Inn: E Chipezeze (Zendera 72 mins), P Bernard, G Goddard, D Nyandoro, M Jackson, S Munawa, G Majika, C Matawu (Gurure 46 mins), X Ndlovu, I Mucheneka, O Tarumbwa (Chirinda 66 mins)
Herentals: F Kuchineyi, B Maunganidze, C Mavhurume, P Chota, W Chimbetu, A Chawandamidzi ( Mutudza 50 mins), I Benza (Blessing Majarira 50 mins), E Mhungu (Brighton Majarira 70 mins), H Chikosa, W Kapuhma, T Benza
