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Mark Harrison

Tadious Manyepo, Harare Bureau
Harare City  2 – 1 Shabanie

HARARE City coach Mark Harrison hailed his charges’ polished second-half performance after they eased their way into third place with a victory over a battling Shabanie in a Castle Lager Premiership match at Rufaro yesterday.

Rare starter Wilfred Muvirimi opened the scoring seven minutes after the restart and Nyasha Mpofu turned a Tatenda Tumba looping free-kick into his own nets seven minutes later.

David Temwanjira scored Shabanie’s consolation 10 minutes from time.

“We were a little bit tired today. We played a tough game in Bulawayo last weekend and today we didn’t play well, especially in the first half, where we were a bit lethargic,” said Harrison.

“We were not ourselves in the first 45 minutes.

“We didn’t make much penetration. We tried to change it in the second half and the boys responded well and in the end we were supposed to have scored four or five goals.  But, overall, I am happy we managed to get all the three points,” said Harrison.

The Sunshine Boys, who have lost just once in 13 matches, were full value for the win as they dominated play, especially in midfield where Tumba’s incredible work ethic, Moses Muchenje’s penetrative runs and Tendai Samanja’s passing accuracy proved priceless.

They could, and should, have won by a bigger margin had Protasho Kabwe, William Manondo and Muvirimi not forgotten their shooting boots.

The visitors had their chances with Temwanjira causing some nervous moments to the Harare City central defensive pairing of Raymond Uchena and Munyaradzi Diro-Nyenye.

‘’The first goal, I don’t know what happened to the defenders. They went to sleep and allowed Harare City to score in a four-versus-one scenario,’’ said Shabanie coach Takesure Chiragwi.

“The second was an own goal. Tough luck. We look forward to a better outing in the next match.’’

Teams
Harare City: R Harrison, R Uchena,T Chimwemwe, B Chayambuka, M Diro-Nyenye, T Samanja, M Muchenje, T Tumba (D Chemwemwe 89th min) W Muvirimi, P Kabwe (P Kabwe 46th min) M Gaki (M Vengesai 65th min)

Shabanie: B Temera, L Manyande (E Kuwayuja 81st min)B Mukundu, N Mpofu, T Chigede, J Nyabinde, C Rusere (R Kawondera 72nd min) T Mupumha (K Dhlamini 71st min), M Murimi, D Temwajira, T Makuwe