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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter

THEY have been struggling to breathe life into their respective Castle Lager Premiership campaigns and tomorrow Dynamos coach Genesis Mangombe and his Ngezi Platinum Stars counterpart Takesure Chiragwi are set to continue with the fight to save their jobs when their teams clash in a Castle Lager Premiership match at Rufaro.

Pressure has been mounting for the two coaches, particularly for Chiragwi who is still facing a possible sacking by end of day tomorrow should he lose to DeMbare.

Chiragwi and his Ngezi Platinum Stars have had a miserable take off in defence of the Premiership title, with only one win in eight starts.

This is a very poor start for the holders and considering the ambitions held by the institution, Chiragwi should be feeling the pressure from every side.

Mangombe on the other hand has managed to buy some time with the Harare giants who had also appeared to lose patience with his slow take off this campaign.

It has also previously emerged the Glamour Boys were lining up a replacement for the former Yadah mentor but after scrapping some points in the last few games the talk has died down. But he is still not safe.

Aside from the coaches’ woes, Dynamos and Ngezi Platinum also have over the years managed to build some enduring rivalries dating back to 2016 when the platinum miners were promoted to the topflight and invading the giants for players.

This will be the second time the teams are meeting this year. Ngezi Platinum were 2-0 victors in the season-opening Castle Challenge Cup earlier in the year.

“You would think it’s a grudge match because we are looking at revenge,” said Mangombe.

“They managed to beat us during the Castle Challenge Cup. Now we want to make sure that we try our best and win it.

“We are playing at home, so we have to do our best. We are not going to change anything especially the type of play that I want, that is keeping possession. So I think it’s going to be better and we are promising our fans an entertaining game on Sunday,” said Mangombe.

But DeMbare have been guilty of having a blunt strikeforce. The giants are one of the least scorers in the league with five goals from seven games.

They had added another to their tally during the midweek but the game against Chegutu Pirates was abandoned after the opponents protested the ball had not crossed the line.

But Mangombe, who has been rotating his strikers in search of the elusive goals, believes the Glamour Boys are not far from exploding.

“It’s good that we are creating chances and we are making a lot of avenues into the box. But the problem is the way we are fluffing the chances, especially the strikers. It’s okay we are creating a lot of chances but we are not doing justice,” said Mangombe.

But his opposite number Chiragwi cannot afford making more mistakes especially after the debacle at their Baobab home ground in their last match when they gave away a two-goal lead to share the points with Yadah in a 2-2 draw. To put into context the pressure that the team is facing, they have not won in their last four                                                                            matches.

“Like I have always said, we are the champions. Everyone wants to beat us. They all put 100 percent when playing against us, so it’s us who really need to change all this.

“We also need to pick up our character. I think character plays a very big role with the situation that we are now. We really need to have a lot of character to every individual player in the team.

“We need to have a bit of character and don’t think about what happened last game. We focus on the game that we are playing and make sure that we can get what we want,” said Chiragwi.

Fixtures:

Today: ZPC Kariba v Bikita Minerals (Nyamhunga), Yadah v Chicken Inn (Heart Stadium), Simba Bhora v TelOne (Wadzanayi)

Tomorrow: Manica Diamonds v FC Platinum (Sakubva), GreenFuel v Arenel Movers (Green Fuel), Highlanders v CAPS United (Barbourfields), Hwange v Herentals (Colliery), Dynamos v Ngezi Platinum Stars (Rufaro), Bulawayo Chiefs v Chegutu Pirates (Luveve)