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Norman Mapeza

Saul Mundandi in ZVISHAVANE
NORMAN Mapeza is positive the gods of football will start smiling on his team this afternoon after a horrible start to their campaign in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League championship race. There is belief here that there are some people who have been sabotaging Mapeza to have the championship-winning coach pushed out of his job at FC Platinum.

However, the club’s leadership, notably team president George Mawere, have backed Mapeza and assured him that his job is safe.

Mapeza’s manager, Gibson Mahachi, who recently lost his wife, has been in Zvishavane to give his high-profile client support during these trying times.

And the former Warriors’ skipper and coach believes they will get it right, starting this afternoon, when they host Tsholotsho in a tricky fixture at Mandava.

“We are going to keep working hard and I am sure results will come. As a coach, I always stay positive and look ahead no matter what happens and I always leave everything to God,” said Mapeza.

“At Monomotapa we lost the first four games and I went on to win the league but that was 2008 and this is 2015, the environment is different but very soon we will be getting the results.

“I always get worried when I see that the team is doing well but we are not getting positive results.”

The body language among his players during yesterday’s training session told the story of a team that wants to fight for their coach this afternoon.

Tsholotsho coach Lizwe Sweswe said they were not intimidated by FC Platinum.

“I am not afraid of any other coach because we are coaching in the same league. We are in the same industry with Norman,” said Sweswe.

“My players have two legs and his players have two legs.

“The only difference is that my players are young but I am appealing to the fans to come and watch our passing game.

“We do not have many followers but on Friday we are going to win the hearts of more fans because we play entertaining football.”

Tsholotsho will miss the services of Lynot Chikuwa and defender Ricky Bota but Sweswe will be banking on midfielder Simba Gorokocho and Ocean Ncube to make a huge impact.

Tsholotsho come into this match after fire gutted the supermarket of their sponsor, Mandla Manyathela, on Wednesday morning where he lost goods valued at $300 000.