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Bongani Mafu

Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS FC coach Bongani Mafu said his work will not be affected by rumour mongers and will not be drawn into commenting on unsubstantiated remarks. Shooting down a question at a Press conference yesterday that he was not in good books with his assistants and that some of the senior players were losing faith in him, Mafu said he was not a “pub coach” to respond to such allegations.

“You see that’s nonsense I’m not willing to respond to. It’s something that eats me in my personal capacity as a human being. It’s all speculation, you can’t tell me who said that, now I’m thinking of things said by anyone that’s not alive and that’s the reporting that I’m against,” Mafu said.

“Tell me ‘Jack said this’ when Jack is in front of me. What you are saying here — that Mafu and his staff are at loggerheads — is dangerous play. It’s very immature and very basic. I’m a little bit above that kind of talk. I’m not at Highlanders by chance, some of the things said there could be said by a coach coaching a pub team, I’m not a pub coach and I refuse that.”

Mafu went on to speak highly about the dedication that his players have shown him even at a time favourable results were not coming their way.

In their last game — 0-1 loss to Chapungu — Highlanders fans staged a peaceful demonstration from Barbourfields Stadium to their clubhouse, expressing their agitation following their team’s poor start of the 2015 season.

Highlanders have managed two wins, two defeats and a draw in their opening five matches, something that their hard-to-please followers feel is below par.

Mafu said he is impressed with his players’ attitude at training after their shambolic display against Chapungu.

The Bosso gaffer, seeking his first away win on Sunday at Rusape’s Vengere Stadium against Dongo Sawmill, said they are raring to go.

With pressure mounting on him and on his boys to win, the coach believes it is unfair to include pre-season friendly matches to judge his team’s performance. He said those were training games, which he was using to look at his boys.

“The games that we played were training matches. We’ve played five league matches and we’ve had both feelings because we’ve won and we’ve lost. We even played a draw. We are not far away from the top teams and soon we will get it right,” said Mafu.

About the time that he needs to turn around the club’s fortunes, Mafu said: “How much time, that’s a very vague question because there’s no time given to change things. We are changing things at the moment because we’re a team that is playing well. Look, the game against Chapungu, they had more ball possession but we had goal opportunities but failed to convert our chances. So statistically we are playing okay but haven’t got results we aspire for.”

Mafu said he was not a lame coach to use injuries haunting his club as an excuse for Highlanders’ poor season’s start.

Some of the players that have been missing because of injuries are Obadiah Tarumbwa, King Nadolo, Mthulisi Maphosa, Douglas Sibanda, Ozias Zibande and Simba Sithole.

Mafu defended his formation of using Thomas Chideu as a lone striker, saying he was the only available forward since Tarumbwa, Sithole and Zibande were injured.

Worried about his team’s conversion rate, Mafu said they are training twice a day to find formulae for positive results.

Because of the chances that they continue creating, the Highlanders coach insists that someone will get smacked as they are working on steadying their ship.

On Sunday, Highlanders are likely to use two strikers with either Sithole or Zibande who are said to be 80 percent fit partnering Chideu.

PSL Fixtures
Tomorrow: Chicken Inn v How Mine (Luveve), Harare City v Dynamos (Rufaro), Flame Lily v Triangle United (Lafarge), Whawha v FC Platinum (Ascot)

Sunday: Caps United v ZPC Kariba (National Sports Stadium), Dongo Sawmill v Highlanders (Vengere), Chapungu v Hwange (Ascot), Tsholotsho v Buffaloes (White City)