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Eddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
CHAMPIONS Dynamos axed coach David “Yogi” Mandigora with the club’s leadership saying they felt the Glamour Boys were falling short in their quest for immortality by grabbing a fifth straight Premiership title.

Mandigora’s assistant, Tonderai Ndiraya, takes over as interim coach of the country’s biggest football club until the end of the season.

Ndiraya’s first game in charge will be against bitter rivals Highlanders in the Commander ZNA Charities Sheild final at Rufaro tomorrow.

Interestingly, Mandigora had told the media on Thursday that he would field a full-strength team for that game.

His dismissal is likely to boost interest in the match, among the Dynamos fans, who feel that he was the one who was letting their beloved team down.

The Herald predicted in January this year that Mandigora would fail at Dynamos with our pundit, Bothwell Mahlengwe, even equating him to David Moyes, who came short when he was appointed to fill the big shoes left by Sir Alex Ferguson.

While Moyes, at least, lasted 10 months at Manchester United, Mangidora only lasted seven months at the Glamour Boys.

He has cast a lonely figure of late, unwanted by the fans who felt that he wasn’t the right man for the job, while the leadership, which stood by him in the past, was now losing its confidence.

Speculation was rife in the capital yesterday that DeMbare were heading for a reunion with Callisto Pasuwa, the man who guided them to four straight league titles, before their relationship ended unceremoniously at the beginning of the year.

Pasuwa will be out of a job tonight when he calls time on his turbulent spell as Young Warriors and Warriors coach after running out of patience with ZIFA who have failed to pay him for his services despite impressive results.

He remains a favourite with the DeMbare fans who still feel that he should be given another stint with the Glamour Boys.

For now, Ndiraya will be assisted by Gift “Umbro” Muzadzi who also doubles as goalkeepers’ coach while Richard Chihoro remains the team manager.

Mandigora was fired on Tuesday night after failing to give satisfactory answers during a meeting with the executive committee led by Kenny Mubaiwa on the direction his team was taking in the championship race.

Mubaiwa, however, said the decision to relieve Mandigora of his duties was not based on emotions.

DeMbare had given Mandigora the mandate to win the league championship this year and the leadership at the club felt the coach has performed below expectations after failing to meet the 30 point target, at this stage, he was set when he took up the job at the beginning of the season.

Mandigora inherited the hot seat amid fears that he would not match the high standards set by Pasuwa who had won four successive championships with the Glamour Boys.

The Glamour Boys have struggled this year and the management was apparently incensed when the team lost considerable ground in the championship race because of the increasing number of draws in recent matches.

DeMbare have only won once in their last seven league matches, a controversial victory over bitter rivals Highlanders.

Mubaiwa said the league title remains their target but so far results under Mandigora were not promising.

The team is currently sitting fourth on the log standings with 29 points from 17 games, three behind log leaders Triangle.

“We had a meeting where we called the head coach David Mandigora and we asked him some questions pertaining to the poor results that were coming,” said Mubaiwa.

“We weren’t satisfied by his answers and we then decided to fire him.

“Initially when we signed a contract with him we had said we wanted 30 points from 15 games and that did not happen.

“Now we’ve played 17 games and still he didn’t get to 30 points. So to us that didn’t make sense.”