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HIGHLANDERS’ league draw to lowly Bantu Rovers on Sunday will arguably go down as one of the most disappointing days to multitudes of Bosso fans. Equally, it could be argued that it represented yet another opportunity missed for the players to truly make their mark on a derby and show who are the top dogs in town. Often regarded as a stage where big game players emerge, where heroes and villains are made, the whole bunch in black and white huffed and puffed all afternoon but found their opponents, newcomers Bantu Rovers unyielding and to their credit, Tshintsha Guluva were in close combat until the final whistle and with some bit of luck, could have won the match had the referee not ignored their penalty appeal in the first stanza and had the post not come to the defence of Highlanders later in the game after impressive young substitute Dalubuhle Moraka had finished everything with everyone who dared challenge him as he charged towards goal.

More so, one would shudder to think how the match would have ended with the Jomo Sono of Zimbabwean football, Methembe Ndlovu, who is Bantu president and head coach, still on the touch line since he was expelled by the referee with only 31 minutes played.

All the pre-match hype was centred on Highlanders getting three points and extending their lead at the top of the table. But after the draw, they still found themselves at the apex, but only a point lead this time around, and the question doing rounds is for how long they will cling to that position with bitter rivals Dynamos breathing heavy on their necks.

Forget about ZPC Kariba, though unbeaten and sitting pretty at position two, forget about fourth placed Caps United, forget about fifth placed Hwange and even sixth placed FC Platinum, the story of Zimbabwean football revolves around Highlanders and Dynamos and the rest are just there to give us sub plots and make the game more intriguing, but lasting memories are on the successes and failures of the big two, no doubt about that.

Ndlovu was naturally pleased with the outcome, which he believed will give his boys some self belief as they move forward and try to swim off the relegation zone.
While Bosso fans expected Kelvin Kaindu to lash out at his under-performing boys, the Zambian, as usual, coolly came to the defence of his players, noting that they had improved from their previous game which they lost on penalties to How Mine in the NetOne One Wallet quarter-finals.

While the game against Bantu is now water under the bridge, with only the dropped two points remaining on the lips of football lovers, the Bulawayo giants find themselves facing another side that seems to have mastered how not to lose to Highlanders, How Mine. And the story starts with the coach, Philani Ncube, who even with Chicken Inn gave Highlanders a difficult time in both derbies and last season, Bosso only managed to beat How Mine in the Mbada Diamonds Cup finals and this season, with two games played against each other, Bosso have won the league encounter and lost the cup encounter, and tomorrow’s game is certainly one for bragging rights. And to Bosso fans, the real Highlanders players should stand up and be counted.

And as one of the best coaches in the world, Arsene Wenger once said; “The face of the manager is the mirror of the health of his team”, we await to see how Kaindu’s face will be like come Sunday.

With Beefy, the How Mine gaffer, he would certainly go into Barbourfields full of confidence and with some sort of business like face, but he certainly has some healthiness on his team sheet, despite failing to win in recent league matches. Moreover, he knows that another loss could turn out to be catastrophic to a club that has invested a lot in players and is certainly not in the league to make up numbers.

Kaindu can also relish in the kind of players he has at his disposal, especially after getting an out and out striker, last season’s top goal scorer Njabulo Ncube back to compete for that central striker position with Ozias Zibande.

Ncube has not played a competitive game for some time after falling out of favour at Platinum, or it’s Platinum who fell out of favour with him, which ever way you look at it, so he will need some time to get his match fitness back and hopefully, give leading scorer Charles Sibanda the opportunity to play his favourite role behind strikers where he is more creative and more effective when moving forward.

On a good day, Ncube can make things happen, even tomorrow when given the chance, but there are other players like Pasca Manhanga who have shown some potential while at smaller teams and now that they have realised that dream moves to a big team in the big city, the nation awaits to see what they will deliver.

As the derby against How Mine, a different team from the likes of Zimbabwe Saints who were also predominately a Bulawayo team in  terms of coaching personnel and players, arrives, the talk in the streets has been about Kaindu’s storied career given the significance of the third season he is spending in the country, finishing the last two with a silver medal, fans believe players should put in their very best performance to win the derby, erase the Bantu draw memories and maintain the title charge.

A draw is  not a bad result by the way, but it assumed a new meaning to Highlanders fans after being held by Bantu Rovers, a team they had overcome 4-2 a few weeks earlier, and more so, going into the game, even in the darkest recesses of subconscious, they never imagined what would unfold. But after fighting for that win against Bantu, and losing to How Mine in a cup game, Bosso fans should have seen it coming, but no, they were busy chilling the champagne for “KK”, they believed it shall be well, and never took time to notice that the king, KK himself, was naked with his soldiers on holiday.

Nonetheless, the game tomorrow presents KK and his boys some opportunity to please their die-hard fans, whose patience is slowly but surely fading, and prove to all and sundry that they are good enough to wear that black and white strip and are man enough to stop the Dynamos league dominance.

In fact, it is in the best interest of Highlanders to stop Dynamos from winning the title for the fourth year running, as that would mean they remain the only team to have achieved that feat from 1999 to 2003.

The only difference being that Highlanders dominated for four years under two coaches, Rahman Gumbo and  the late Eddie May each getting a double, while Dynamos seem to be determined to rewrite history books with one man in charge, “Ras” Callisto Pasuwa.

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