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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter

FOCUS will be on the bottom five teams — ZPC Kariba, Harare City, Bulawayo City, Tenax and Whawha when the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League matches head to match day 29, as they battle for survival.

Four teams will be relegated to the first division, making way for the champions of Northern Region Simba Bhora, Eastern Region’s Green Fuels, Central Soccer League’s Sheasham and either Hwange or ZPC Hwange from the Southern Region.

The pick of the relegation matches this weekend is the Bulawayo derby between third from the bottom Bulawayo City and second placed Chicken Inn.

Bulawayo City are smarting from a 1-0 away defeat to FC Platinum while the Gamecocks won by a similar score line against Whawha.

With 24 points, five away from safety, Bulawayo City know that for them to survive relegation, they have to work hard and collect as many points as possible and Chicken Inn will likely condemn them.

Chicken Inn have already conceded defeat in the title race and are now focusing on finishing the season strongly.

In Gweru, Bulawayo Chiefs will be hoping to keep the fire burning before playing the Chibuku Super Cup semi-final against Black Rhinos by claiming the scalp of Whawha.

The table anchors Whawha are winless in seven outings, with their last victory coming on July 16 when they stunned Highlanders 2-1 at Ascot Stadium. During the period under review, Whawha has suffered five defeats, managing two identical 0-0 draws away at Herentals and home to Triangle United.

Chiefs should guard against complacency as Whawha gave Chicken Inn a good run for their money when they went down 1-0 in Bulawayo last Saturday.

Electricity generators ZPC Kariba are a place above relegation with 29 points, four above Harare City. Bulawayo City are on 24 points, with Tenax at 23 while Whawha anchor the table on 20 points.

All the five survival fighters have tricky encounters at the weekend with ZPC Kariba who drew their last match 1-1 at home to Black Rhinos taking a trip to Ngezi Platinum stars who shocked Dynamos to a 1-0 win in Harare.

Ngezi are chasing a top four finish and having struck the right chord that has seen them going for a four-match unbeaten streak, including three consecutive wins, ZPC Kariba who have been blowing on and off should expect a tough encounter.

ZPC Kariba have managed six points in their last four games.

But Ngezi should not expect an easy walk in the park as they face a ZPC Kariba side that is being led by their former coach Rodwell Dhlakama who knows most of the platinum miners’ players.

Ngezi coach Takesure Chiragwi was Dhlakama’s assistant, so the clash can easily be dubbed as a “teacher-student” affair.

A mammoth assignment awaits Harare City at Vengere Stadium where they will face Black Rhinos who are unbeaten in 11 home games. The last time Rhinos lost a game at home was on March 26 when they went down 1-2 to Triangle United.

Since then, the army side has won seven matches at home and played to four draws.

This is an intimidating statistic, with Harare City who are winless in seven games – five defeats and two draws – needing to summon their best to surprise Rhinos.

Harare City head into the weekend game smarting from a 1-0 away defeat at Tenax, something that should worry coach Taurai Mangwiro who is seeing his charges marching out of the topflight.

Meanwhile, second from the bottom Tenax are away at Yadah who posted a big result by beating Caps United 1-0 last weekend. — @ZililoR