The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
Chicken Inn (Zimbabwe)……………. (1) 1
Power Dynamos (Zambia)……….. ….(0) 1
VISITING Zambian side Power Dynamos came back from a goal down to draw with Chicken Inn in an international friendly match played at Luveve Stadium yesterday, despite the tourists finishing with 10 men on the field of play.
Seasoned striker Thabani Moyo put Chicken Inn ahead 10 minutes into the encounter before Kelvin Kampamba equalised two minutes after the break from the penalty spot after he had been brought down by Moses Jackson.
Power Dynamos ended the match with 10 players, striker Alex Ngonga sent off by referee Nkosana Nduna in the 67th minute, 12 minutes after he had come on as a substitute. Ngonga, one of the scorers when Zambia beat Zimbabwe 2-0 in the 2013 Cosafa Cup final in Ndola had been shown a yellow card by Nduna for a rough tackle on Obadiah Tarumbwa but when he used abusive language on Guide Goddard, the referee had no option but to upgrade the booking to red.
Chicken Inn missed some glorious opportunities to win the match with substitutes, Tarumbwa and Ismael Lawe the chief culprits.
Rahman Gumbo, the Chicken Inn coach expressed his happiness with the physical and mental fitness of his players. Gumbo had Teenage Hadebe, Passmore Bernard and Devine injured while Lawrence Mhlanga who is trying to force his way out of the Gamecocks missing from the defence. Jackson and Goddard were the centreback pairing. He believes that Innocent Muchaneka and Moyo fitted well into the team.
He expressed satisfaction with the personnel at his disposal, declaring 85 percent preparedness for the 2017 season.
“We are working on our fitness levels, it’s pre-season now, we are looking at a situation where we get the guys ready for the start of the season in terms of their physical and mental fitness but I am quite happy with the progress so far. It was almost a new look defence, I had three defenders on the injury list, Teenage Hadebe, Passmore Bernard and Devine Lunga, that’s the regular back four, but we didn’t have any problem because I had to have a new look defence, which shows that we have depth in our lineup,’’ said Gumbo.
Power Dynamos mentor Daniel Kabwe described the encounter as being tough seeing that they were playing on a heavy turf.
He believes the friendly matches they are playing in Zimbabwe will prepare his side well for their season.
“It’s been a fantastic game, yes it was very difficult game looking at the turf was thick and playing Chicken Inn at their home ground I think it’s been a very good result. We are trying to consolidate on the team, we have come with 30 players, we want to come up with 18 and playing high profile friendly matches against Chicken Inn and Highlanders will give us a very good mileage and good direction,’’ said Kabwe.
Power Dynamos play against Highlanders today and Bantu Rovers on Tuesday, both matches at Luveve Stadium.
@Mdawini_29
