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Agent Sawu

Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
Bantu Rovers 2-0 ZPC Kariba

AFTER watching his side stun ZPC Kariba 2-0 at Luveve Stadium yesterday, Bantu Rovers manager Agent Sawu declared that his side is gunning for the maximum 15 points from their last five Castle Lager Premiership matches.

Striker McCarthy Dube and Nigel Papius scored in the last 10 minutes of the game to earn the relegated Rovers the maximum points.

ZPC Kariba dominated possession early in the game but were let down by their toothless strike force led by Francisco Zvekumbawire and wasteful Never Tigere. During this spell, Rovers have goalkeeper Elton Sibanda to thank as the youngster made a crucial save 14 minutes into the game when he tipped a powerful Tigere effort over the bar.

There was little goal-mouth action after that with the teams going into half time break deadlocked at 0-0.

In the second half, ZPC were a pale shadow of the side that came out storming in the first half. They failed to dominate possession and struggled to get any shots on target. Rovers’ trio of Lucky Ndlela, Brighton Ncube and McCarthy began to dictate terms in the middle of the park with ZPC failing to cope with their pace and skill.

However, despite this spell of possession Bantu failed to create any clear cut chances. Ten minutes before full time, Tendai Hove in goals for Kariba let a harmless ball slip out of his hands for an alert McCarthy to fire Rovers into the lead. Sensing danger and the possibility of an embarrassing defeat, the visitors threw men forward in search of an equaliser. The move quickly backfired when Rovers launched a devastating counter attack that saw striker McCarthy go on great run from his own half  into the visitors’ territory before providing a perfectly weighted through ball to Nigel Papius who scored with a delicate chip.

Rovers stand in coach, Agent Sawu, was impressed with his team’s performance.

“I am very happy with the performance today. We showed character after the 5-0 drubbing at the weekend. We were playing against an experienced side so we waited for them to come at us with the hope of catching them on the counter and that is what happened. We are not talking about relegation at Bantu. Our target now is to make sure we get all 15 points from the remaining five games,” said Sawu.

His opposite number Sunday “Mhofu” Chidzambwa was disappointed with the result.

“Very poor performance from the boys, in the second half we played hopeless football, it was complacency at its highest level. We have to go back to the drawing board and focus on the next game,” said Mhofu.

Teams
Bantu Rovers: Kudzaishe Dzingwe, Dumisani Ndlovu, Nyasha Garayi, Remmington Masuku, Munyaradzi Chitambwe, Lucky Ndlela, Brighton Ncube, Nigel Papius, McCarthy Dube,

ZPC Kariba: Tendai Hove, Dexter Phiri, Bornface Appiah, Arnold Chiveya, Daniel Chakupe (Limited Chikafa, 65th minute), Talent Chamboko (Tawanda Nyamandwe, 65th minute), Never Tigere, Raphael Manuvire, Francisco Zvekumbawire (Leonard Fiyado, 59th minute)