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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
AFTER seeing their charges going pound for pound in two pre-season friendly matches played at Gweru Sports Club on Saturday, Sheasham and Black Rhinos coaches have expressed satisfaction with their teams’ progress.

The two Premiership sides are in their fourth week of pre-season.
Sheasham, coached by John Nyikadzino won the first game 1-0 before playing to a 1-1 draw against the Stanford “Stix” Mutizwa mentored Rhinos.

The ambitious Gweru side were playing their second pre-season game having taken on Dynamos last weekend at Ascot Stadium.

Nyikadzino, who brought in players who include Ex-Hwange and ZPC Kariba goalkeeper Future Sibanda, the pair of Tichaona Macheka and Tatenda Makurumidze who were signed from Caps United, Tafadzwa Marira (Tenax) and Munyaradzi Chirwa noted improvements from the DeMbare tie which they lost 1-0.

“I’m very happy with the performance of the players. Considering the way we played against Dynamos, there’s a big improvement. Today we were going forward, we missed a number of chances and that’s the area that we’ve to work on.

“The intention for the friendly match wasn’t to win but to fine-tune our preparations and find combinations.

“I knew Black Rhinos are a physical side and we wanted to check if my boys can match the physical demands and I’m happy that they are also physically fit and were not easily bullied,” said Nyikadzino.

The former Chapungu and Nichrut FC coach added that Sheasham will keep playing friendly matches against PSL teams in their efforts to get the players game time as well as improve on their shortcomings.
Mutizwa said that Sheasham were the first PSL opposition that they have faced during their pre-season training. Black Rhinos have had training games against Chapungu and ZPC Munyati. The army side drew 0-0 in both games.

“The guys are showing great improvement and are understanding each other now. We’ve got a lot of youngsters in the team after losing about 13 players. I’m happy that these youngsters are showing the zeal to play.

“We’re on a rebuilding mission and I believe that by the time the season starts we will be ready for the challenge,” Mutizwa said.

Black Rhinos, who lost several players including Soccer Star of the Year finalist Eli Ilunga, Peace Makaha, Dennis Dauda, Tawanda Chisi and Gareth Madake managed to recruit a number of footballers from fellow army sides Tongogara, Cranborne Bullets and Chapungu. — @ZililoR