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Philani “Beefy” Ncube

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
PHILANI “Beefy” Ncube returns to the City of Kings with Harare City today wary of his former paymasters Bulawayo City in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League encounter set for Barbourfields Stadium.

Harare City are three points ahead of Bulawayo City who have 22 points and are making a fourth visit to the City of Kings.

Under Ncube, who joined them in May, Harare City picked four out of the nine points from trips made to Bulawayo where they beat Bantu Rovers 2-0, lost to How Mine 2-1 and then drew 0-0 with Highlanders on their last visit.

Beefy seems to be “scared” of his former club.

“Obviously coming to face your former club puts pressure and if I say I’m not feeling it I’ll be lying. Most of the players there know my style and that makes it difficult to plan. They have a chairman who has PSL experience (Jerry Sibanda), a vice-chairman (Zenzo Moyo) who is a former national team player and among the experienced people in their structure is Warriors’ assistant coach Mandla Mpofu which makes them a whole complete side. So we’re coming to Bulawayo to face a giant in my terms and we’ll try our best,” said Ncube.

Harare City poached four Bulawayo City players, defender Peace Tshuma who had a great game against Highlanders and the midfield trio of Welcome Ndiweni, Warren Dube and Kelvin Madzongwe.

Bulawayo City, coached by Mpofu will be hoping to recover from a 3-1 away loss to FC Platinum.

Mpofu said they are not under pressure and encouraged his charges to take the game “like any other match”.

“Our goal is to perform well and pick as many points as possible. We’re going for a fight so that we get good points. The guys are ready for a battle,” said Mpofu.

Bulawayo City will look to defenders Zephaniah Ngodzo, Munyaradzi Mungadze, central defenders Nyasha Mukumbi and Zibusiso Sibanda  as well as midfield duo of Innocent Kutsanzira and Sipho Ndlovu.

Strikers Mkhululi Moyo and Trevor Ndlovu will keep Harare City’s defenders on their toes.

Meanwhile, Chicken Inn travel to Harare to face Black Rhinos today while FC Platinum are away to Triangle United tomorrow.

Leaders, Ngezi Platinum Stars and Caps United  square off tomorrow in Harare.

Fixtures

Today: Yadah FC v Chapungu (Rufaro, 1PM, SuperSport), Black Rhinos v Chicken Inn (Rufaro, 3PM, SuperSport), Bulawayo City v Harare City (Barbourfields)

Tomorrow: Caps United v Ngezi Platinum (Rufaro, 3PM, SuperSport), Hwange v Bantu Rovers (Colliery), Triangle United v FC Platinum (Gibbo), Shabanie Mine v ZPC Kariba (Maglas), How Mine v Dynamos (POSTPONED), Highlanders v Tsholotsho FC (POSTPONED)
— @ZililoR