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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
Starbill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0
Ngezi Platinum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0

STARBILL coach Elisha Mukusa said they will not read much into the two points dropped yesterday after they were held to a goalless draw by Ngezi Platinum in a balanced Northern Region Division One soccer league match at Gwanzura.

Both teams played some good football despite the pitch being slippery due to the rains that pounded Harare on Saturday. However, neither of them could get a goal and a draw was a fair result for the day.

Starbill were coming from a defeat and had hoped for a win but it was just not their day and Mukusa said the point picked would still be enough to help make it a little easier in his task of motivating the players for their next game.

“For me as a coach it’s a positive, it’s an advantage to us because it will be an easy task this week because we lost our previous game and this time we got a point. So I think it’s better because we will build from there so that next week we can get a positive result.

“It was a tough match considering that we were playing a team that won their last game and we were coming from a defeat. We were trying to mobilise and motivate the young players to fight very hard so that we can get a positive result but unfortunately we couldn’t bury the chances that we got in the 40th minute,” said Mukusa.

The Starbill gaffer said had they utilised the chances that came their way they could have collected maximum.

“We could have maybe taken three points but obviously in a game of football we expect some of those things they tend to happen. These are still youngsters and they need that composure and also to have that confidence so that maybe we can start scoring,” Mukusa said.

Starbill were the first to attack less than a minute into the game when Johane Sibanda’s effort was punched out for a corner. The hosts continued to attack creating a number of chances and Abel Machaka could have scored in the 84th minute when he received a tantalising pass from Takunda Murove inside the box but he took his time allowing the Ngezi Platinum defenders time to recover.

Ngezi on their part had their own opportunities but all their efforts were to no avail too.

And coach Clifton Kadurira made some desperate changes in the second half in a bid to get a breakthrough that however, proved elusive.

Seasoned striker Mercyful Ncube, who came in for Innocent Sokosi in the 54th minute, had some good moments threatening Starbill’s defence but his efforts did not materialise.

Kadurira was disappointed by the result as he said they had hoped for three points.

“The game was okay, it’s only that the pitch was bad but both teams played very well. It’s unfortunate we ended up failing to collect maximum points which we travelled for but it’s a game of football.

Other Results:

DStv Rangers 2, Cargo Careers 1, Seven Flames 2, ZRP FC 0; Lake Harvest 0, Black Rhinos 1; Darwin 0, Gunners 0; Blue Jets 1, Mushowani 2; Zatex 0, Herentals 3; Starbill, 0, Ngezi Platinum 0; ZRP Morris 2, Blue Swallows 2; DC Academy 2, Karoi United 2.