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Prophet Magaya

Sports Reporter
PROPHET Walter Magaya has revealed he was badly hurt by the way his Premiership club Yadah Stars slumped to their first defeat of the season, at the hands of serial champions Dynamos on Sunday, and he will now take a bigger role in the preparation and selection of his team ahead of their next assignments.

The football-mad prophet was away in Cape Town, South Africa, where he was holding a three-day crusade for his Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries — which started on Friday and ended on Sunday — when his team crashed to a 0-1 defeat in the Castle Lager Premiership at the National Sports Stadium.

It was Yadah Stars’ first defeat, in their top-flight league adventure, and it came in their sixth game of the season after they succumbed to a goal scored by DeMbare skipper Ocean Mushure whose shot from a dead ball struck from distance deceived ‘keeper Tafadzwa Dube and trickled home.

The newboys were lifeless in the first half, with their midfield being overrun by a strong performance from the outstanding Obey Mwerahari, who had an authoritative performance in an unfamiliar defensive midfield role, as he not only provided a shield on his defence, but also imposed himself on the opponents.

Yadah’s case wasn’t helped, in some way, by a lifeless performance by Tatenda Dzumbunu, who was surprisingly jittery all afternoon despite his obvious talent and coach Jairos Tapera was forced to end his player’s nightmare in the first half when he pulled him out for the authoritative Wellington Kamudyariwa.

Had Yadah won that game, by a two-goal margin, they would have gone top of the Castle Lager Premiership for the second time in the early stages of this campaign and after the introduction of Kamudyariwa — who steadied their midfield and the tricky Leeroy Murape, who kept beating Mushure down the right channel, they had chances to get the victory.

Magaya told The Herald he was deeply hurt by the defeat. “I can tell you that I am very angry right now,’’ he said.

“The painful thing is that we knew exactly what we needed to do to win that match, we planned accordingly, but we didn’t do as we should have done and that’s what is hurting me and making me angry.“We could have made a very big statement with a win in that game against Dynamos, but we shot ourselves in the foot and that is unfortunate.

“The good thing is that we are not yet out of the race and my plans to make the team the best in this race are still intact, but what I need to do is to put 100 percent to help the team and I will give 100 percent effort from now onwards because I can see that the team needs me.’’

Yadah’s next match is away to struggling Bantu Rovers in Bulawayo before they host Chicken Inn.