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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter

CAPS UNITED coach Lloyd Chitembwe has challenged his charges to stay focused as they seek to redeem themselves against Yadah in a Castle Lager Premiership football match at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.

The Green Machine are still licking their wounds after their shock 1-2 defeat to lowly Tenax at Sakubva last weekend in a game the team literally went to sleep in the second half.

But the veteran gaffer Chitembwe said his players should dust themselves up and calibrate their minds for the Yadah match.

“Look, as a team we have gelled but we encountered a hump against Tenax last week which is normal anyway. We lost some bit of concentration in the second half and we ended up losing the match but that is normal in this game of football. We need to work on our mistakes as we go into the match against Yadah on Sunday,” said Chitembwe.

“After losing our previous match against Tenax, we obviously need to redeem ourselves as a team and try to win the next match against Yadah.”

The former Harare City coach described Yadah as a potential banana skin given the Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries side posted their first victory of the season last weekend against Herentals.

It is a match Chitembwe knows his charges are very much capable of winning but which he is aware will be tricky given it is a derby.

“Obviously this is going to be a very tough match given that it is a derby and Yadah are also coming into it having registered their first win of the season last weekend.

“They will obviously be gunning for the maximum points to carry with the momentum and we are very much wary of them.

“This is a tricky tie, Yadah are a good team and we will need to be at our best to overcome them.”

Chitembwe said while his team lost against Tenax last weekend, he was happy his team was showing progress technically and in terms of attitude.

Makepekepe will have to do without Ian Nyoni who is still out injured while new boy Ben Musaka will also have to wait longer before making his debut for the club.

Musaka, who signed for CAPS United from Harare City, is still battling an injury and he will, for the third week running, be out of action.

His paperwork though is in place but he is still to fully recover from an injury he suffered while he was still with the municipality side.

Defender Marshal Machazane, who also missed last week’s tie against Tenax, has started training, potentially boosting Chitembwe’s options at the back.

But given the defensive stalwart only started training this week, the gaffer may decide to give him some more time to recover before rushing him back into action.

“But you look at us as well. We are a team which has started to show some signs of progress. We started the year slowly but we have been picking some positives week in and week out.”

“We need to quickly forget about the disappointment in Mutare and see how best we can tackle Yadah.

“We have been lucky this week as we have not had some new injury casualties. But Ian (Nyoni) and Ben (Musaka) are still out while Marshal (Machazane) has returned to training though we are not sure whether he will be ready or not for the match against Yadah.

“Generally, we have been working to improve in all aspects of the game. There are some areas which we think we can improve a lot as a team and become very competitive going forward. But obviously we are ready for the match against Yadah.”