The Sunday News
Nkosilathi Sibanda at Luveve Stadium
Chicken Inn 0-0 Arenel Movers
CHICKEN Inn assistant coach, Fungai Kwashi lamented their poor finishing after they were held to a nil all draw by Castle Lager Premiership debutants Arenel Movers, at Luveve Stadium in Bulawayo yesterday.
The Gamecocks who had the privilege to bench chief strikers, Brian Muza, Clive Augusto and Genius Mutungamiri, were found wanting in front of goal.
Kwashi didn’t mince his words, saying they blew as many chances that could have changed the complexion of the game to their advantage. His view was that the match belonged to the Gamecocks throughout.
The home side made five substitutions, trying to break the stalemate but all was in vain.
Kwashi said more needs to be done at training to improve their play, as they embark on their next assignment.
“We failed to execute chances we created. We could have scored four goals as we dominated possession.
“When you play a team that is putting a low block, you need to use a wide man. If you don’t score goals, then you can’t win games,” said the assistant coach.
On their plan of having five substitutes and benching some of their top forwards, Kwashi said everyone in the team has an equal chance for a call up and it was all about how one performed at training.
“Everyone has to fight for their places. No one is given a place on a platter. If you don’t work hard at training, you don’t play.
“We are here for business. We are not a charity organisation. For players who work hard during the week, they will get starting places. It’s not about names and individuals but hardwork.”
Arenel coach, Farai Tawachera said their let down was failure to convert upfront.
“It was a good game. I thought in the first half we had planned well to get over them. They were two pockets on the wings, so we wanted to play in that pocket behind the leftback and the rightback, so that our striker peels off attacking that space. Unfortunately, our attacking midfielders were slow, otherwise we should have scored in the first half.
“In the second half, they tried to put pressure on us. As debutants sometimes you get confused here and there but we had to re-organise ourselves. But, still, going forward we made the same mistakes. So at the end of the day, they applied more pressure on us,” said Tawachera.
The gaffer said on their upcoming matches, he will make sure to train his charges to work on their ball conversion.
“I am worried by our conversion rate. There’s one thing we have to work on and that is transition from defence to attack. We just need to spruce it up. The team never had any friendlies, so we could have picked up those things in the preparations. Now it’s a question of us going back to perfect that.”
Teams
Chicken Inn: D Bernard, B Makopa (Muza 65th minute), L Mangaira, I Mabunu, D Phiriri (Augusto 65th minute), J Tulani, M Charamba (Farasi 75th minute), I Mucheneka (B Mutungamiri 75th minute), G Majika (Hwata 65th minute), X Ndlovu, A Chirinda
Arenel Movers: A Ngwenya, G Dlodlo, B Gijimani, A Ndlovu, M Jackson, C Chinomona, B Jaravaza, Z Dambo, G Kufandada, T January (Chigwenhese 78th minute), J Sibanda (Munawa 89th minute)-@NkosieLegend
