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Tadious Manyepo in ZVISHAVANE

FC Platinum……………………….. (1) 2

Harare City ……………………………. 0

FC PLATINUM bounced back from a two-match barren run to turn on the show on struggling Harare City in this Castle Lager Premiership tie at Mandava yesterday.

A cool first half finish from Never Tigere and a fine individual effort by second half substitute Perfect Chikwende helped the champions to a deserved victory.

The back-to-back title winners never showed any signs of fatigue, just four days after their CAF Champions League preliminary round first leg encounter against Nyasa Big Bullets in Malawi, which ended goalless.

Instead, they bossed their opponents the entire afternoon and stretched their lead at the top to four points in 18 matches.

Harare City’s stand-in coach Mark Mathe, who has been in charge since Mark Harrison left, has collected just three points out of a possible 15 and is now skating on thin ice following yesterday’s defeat.

His team remained stuck on 15th place on the log with 19 points to their name.

With Shingirai Masukuta, stand-in skipper Martin Vengesayi and Ishmael Wadi failing to press the opponents higher up the field, Norman Mapeza’s troops soon started taking the game to their opponents.

And as they piled on the pressure, Tatenda Tavengwa slipped, allowing Rainsome Pavari to tee up an onrushing Tigere for the first goal.

It was game over when Chikwende collected a loose ball in the middle of the pitch and bulldozed his way past a cluster of Harare City players before picking the bottom left corner of Kelvin Shangiwa’s goal.

“The good thing is we managed to get three points. It’s good for us given that we are coming from a difficult match in Malawi,’’ said FC Platinum coach Norman Mapeza.

A gutted Mathe refused to blame his players.

“We managed to do well in terms of our game plan but in the middle of that phase we failed to defend well and we got punished twice. It’s disappointing but it’s a phase which will soon end,” said Mathe.

Teams

FC Platinum: F. Tizayi, R. Muduviwa, G. Bello, W. Stima, T. Chikore, K. Madzongwe, R. Pavari, N. Tigere (H. Magaya 88th min) K. Madera (P. Chikwende 70th min) , R. Kutsanzira, A. Eonde (R. Chinyengetere 63rd min).

Harare City: K. Shangiwa, M. Vengesai (D. Chimwemwe 76th min) R. Uchena, H. Chapusha, T. Chimwemwe, S. Masukuta, M. Mukunga (W. Muvirimi 60th min) , T. Tavengwa, T. Pio, I. Wadi (W. Manondo 70th min) , C. Mujuru.