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Ray Bande in Mutare
Buffaloes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(1) 2
Chicken Inn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(0) 0
LUKE Masomere and his men recovered from the nightmare of the Colliery to beat Chicken Inn in an entertaining Castle Lager Premiership tie at Sakubva yesterday.

Having been thrashed 1-5 by Chipangano, a defeat Masomere blamed on Hwange referee Hardly Ndazi, Buffaloes bounced back in spectacular fashion before their fans.

Interestingly, Chicken Inn has never beaten the Mutare side in the five league matches they have played against each other.

In their first meeting, after Buffaloes’ return to the top-flight league in 2012, the Gamecocks were on the receiving end at Luveve when they succumbed to a 0-1 defeat at home before they settled for a 1-1 stalemate in the reverse fixture at Sakubva.

Last season, the two teams drew 2-2 at Luveve before the Mutare side got the better of their Bulawayo counterparts by a solitary goal at Sakubva.

Chicken Inn will probably look back and blame themselves for a glut of missed opportunities that started with dreadlocked Bhekhimpilo Ncube failing to place the ball in the net after dribbling past Buffaloes’ goalkeeper Blessing Mwandimutsira in the 13th minute.

Ncube’s weak effort was cleared off the line by alert defender Phillip Chandisaita.

However, Buffaloes took the lead 39 minutes into the match when the exciting Admire Dzumbunu’s screamer hit the upright and man-of-the-match Prosper Matizanadzo fired home the rebound.

The impressive Dzumbunu then doubled Buffaloes lead in the 60th minute when he tapped home from a rebound after Chicken Inn goalkeeper Liberty Chirava had failed to deal with Frankson Bushiri’s hard and low shot.

Chicken Inn coach Joey Antipas congratulated Buffaloes for a deserved win.

“I think I should congratulate Buffaloes for winning the game. They showed determination from the onset.

“It was a good game but we lost two glorious scoring chances that could have kept us in the game,” he said.

Buffaloes’ assistant coach, Timothy  Masachi, said his team deserved the three points.

“I think everyone came into this match with three points in mind and we really played well.

“Everyone had the fighting spirit and it worked well for us.

“If we had utilised all the chances we created we could have scored more,” he said.

Teams
Buffaloes: B Mwandimutsira; S Choenda; M Gutu; P Chandisaita; P Matizanadzo; T Mombeshora; F Bushiri; T Jefrey; R Mwenga; P Thembani; A Dzumbunu (M Fenyeka 97th minute):

Chicken Inn: L Chirava; M Jackson; B Mbiriri; C Mutero; B Nyahunzvi; D Phiri; B Ncube (G Majika 79th minute); B Juru (T Banda 79th minute); C Matawu; T Mukambi (I Lawe 67th minute); M Dube: