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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
BULAWAYO City coach Farai Tawachera is convinced that with improved mental belief, his young side can fight its way out of the relegation zone.

City are second from bottom on the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League table with 10 points from 15 matches.
Only Whawha have performed worse than the local authority owned club with nine points.

City appear to be turning the corner after parting ways with Philani “Beefy” Ncube following a string of poor results, which had seen them only registering one win in the league over Highlanders.

Tawachera has overseen two games since taking over from Ncube and has managed to guide the team to a 1-1 stalemate against title chasing Dynamos and a 3-0 thumping of ZPC Kariba.

They next face Harare City in what Tawachera described as a difficult game.

“The boys’ morale has been very high.

They believe in themselves, which is key for us in the situation that we are in.

We are facing Harare City in the next game and we need to be very cautious because they are a very good team.

“Not only are they organised, but they have good tactical discipline.

They also have a very good coach as well and we will try to bring positive results even though we are aware that we are going to a very difficult place to win,” said Tawachera.

He said they had used last week’s break to work on some technical and tactical aspects of their game.

League fixtures were suspended last weekend by the Premier Soccer League to pave way for a security indaba that came up with recommendations to address the increasing scourge of hooliganism and violence that ruined the Dynamos, Highlanders and FC Platinum matches recently.

First Bosso’s match against FC Platinum was abandoned in Zvishavane with the teams deadlocked 1-1 after a late controversial penalty awarded to the home side was hotly disputed by Highlanders’ players before supporters took matters into their hands by invading the pitch.

Police then fired teargas and the game couldn’t resume since the tear smoke affected even the players and officials.

Highlanders’ game against Dynamos was abandoned at Barbourfields Stadium about a fortnight ago after DeMbare fans stormed the pitch and vandalised the goal after Bosso scored what appeared to be a late winner in the 92nd.

Play was stopped, but play couldn’t continue as order couldn’t be restored to allow Bulawayo City Council workers to repair damaged nets.

The PSL then canned all league fixtures and hosted a meeting of football stakeholders to deliberate on security issues and find lasting solutions to the rising cancer.

“The break has been a two-way situation.

We wanted to continue because we were on a good run, but the authorities also had to make a decision given where our football was headed to with the acts of violence.

While we would have preferred to continue, the break also gave us time to correct mistakes from our last game and also work on other aspects of the game with the boys,” Tawachera said.

League matches resume tomorrow and fans will now be able to watch games on Zimpapers’ newly-launched television station, ZTN Prime, on DStv channel 294.

The Harare City vs Bulawayo City game will be the first to be broadcast on ZTN Prime, as local football returns on DStv for the first time since 2017 when PSL and SuperSport ended their deal with the local league.

ZTN Prime is accessible to DStv Premium, Compact Plus, Compact, Access and Lite bouquet customers.