Ndiraya one of us

2608-1-1-BACK PAGE 27 AUGUST 2016Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter—
TONDERAI Ndiraya’s honeymoon at Ngezi Platinum has long passed and the youthful coach says he will be overcome by a wave of emotions when he faces the club that shaped his football career, for the first time standing in the opposite corner. Ndiraya’s dream start to life as coach of the platinum miners was shattered in the past two weeks when his men lost back-to-back fixtures against How Mine at home and Border Strikers in Beitbridge.

Tomorrow he comes face-to-face with Dynamos, the club which shaped his career, in a Castle Lager Premiership tie at Baobab, which will be broadcast live on SuperSport. DeMbare are the only club that Ndiraya played for and coached before they parted ways at the end of last season, leaving him to look elsewhere for employment. “I have not coached any other team than Dynamos,” said Ndiraya.

“When I finished playing for the club, I coached the juniors before I was appointed assistant coach to Elvis Chiweshe and after that worked with Pasuwa (Callisto) and then Mandigora (David), that’s what I have done in my career.

“This is my first job outside Dynamos. “It is going to be an emotional afternoon for me but an interesting one as we are all eager to see what happens on the day.” Last weekend, Ngezi were beaten 0-2 by Border Strikers and the previous weekend they also lost by a similar margin to ZPC Kariba.

“We are coming from two defeats and to be quite honest this is not the right time to meet Dynamos,” said Ndiraya. “We are a small team having gone for two games without a victory and then we meet the biggest club in the land. But we will take it and it only needs ourselves to get us out of the situation. We will have to dig deep.”

Ndiraya assumed the hot seat at Ngezi the same weekend the newboys were coming to Harare in the reverse tie, which they lost 0-2 but the coach only began his duties after that match.

Since his arrival at Ngezi in mid-June, Ndiraya led his men to eight matches without defeat before their good run was ended by How Mine. His player James Nguluve shared the Player of the Month Award for July with Hwange’s Gift Mbweti and Rodwell Chinyengetere of FC Platinum. Former Dynamos players, Zivanai Mhanda, Partson Jaure, Washington Pakamisa and Tichaona Mabvura are also part of the playing squad at Ngezi.

DeMbare assistant coach Murape Murape said it will be business as usual as they meet a team which has quite a number of former DeMbare players. Murape said the players are confident after their 2-1 win over Harare City, which ended a lengthy barren spell without a win.

“In terms of belief and confidence, the victory against Harare City did a lot,” said Murape. “But the boys should remain humble and keep working hard, so far we are seeing the positives coming out of that win against Harare City. “Our preparations are going on well and we are satisfied with the work we have done.

“We are just approaching it like any other game that we have played and we always play with the intention to win. Tonderai Ndiraya being there is good, he is one of us, our brother and friend and it’s good to be facing each other.”

Dynamos players looked fired-up at training, where they had a practice match with Division One side Herentals. Dynamos skipper Stephen Alimenda said they want to a win to please their fans. “Like I have been saying, there is no problem at Dynamos, everything is normal. We have always been playing well but results were just not coming.

“Morale is very high and the boys are raring to go. “The victory against Harare City came at the right time, but the boys are focused on the Ngezi game now,” said Alimenda. Denver Mukamba turned on a good show the last time Dynamos were on the field, capping it up with a superb goal, and the Glamour Boys will be expecting more from their talisman who had failed to fire since his return home from South Africa.

Fixtures
Today: CAPS United v Mutare City (National Sports Stadium, SS), Chapungu v Border Strikers (Ascot), FC Platinum v Chicken Inn (Mandava), Tsholotsho v ZPC Kariba (Luveve).

Tomorrow: Highlanders v How Mine (Barbourfields), Hwange v Triangle (Colliery), Ngezi Platinum v Dynamos (Baobab, SS).

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