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MASTER AND HIS PUPILS . . . Harare City Coach Bigboy Mawiwi (centre) demonstrates some techniques to his charges during his side’s training session in the capital yesterday

Grace Chingoma Sports Reporter
HARARE City assistant coach Witness Munkuli wants his Sunshine Boys to help him turn back the hands of time and secure the Premiership title he last won as a player nine years ago.
The Premiership log leaders are just 90 minutes away from victory and being crowned the 2013 league champions, and Munkuli also believes they need to believe in themselves more than anything else.

But they must clear the hurdle being posed by CAPS United at the National Sports Stadium on Super Sunday in order to retain top spot and pip defending champions Dynamos and third-placed Highlanders for the ultimate prize in domestic football.

A victory by any margin for Harare City would render academic the outcome of the matches involving the title chasing pair of DeMbare and Bosso.

Dynamos will face relegation threatened Black Mambas at Rufaro while Boss also face a cagey assignment against Shabanie Mine.
But it is Harare City who have their fate firmly in their hands as they just have to beat CAPS United in a fixture that has suddenly assumed so much significance as it now defines whether they will be nearly men or whether they will join their chairman Leslie Gwindi, coach Bigboy Mwawiwi and the Sunshine Boys family in popping the champagne bottles.

For Munkuli, one of Mawiwi’s trusted lieutenants in a season in which Harare City have turned on the magic, the venue of Sunday’s game and the identity of their opponents will provide him with a journey down memory lane.

Nine years ago Munkuli was a CAPS United goalkeeper when they won the first of back to back league titles under Charles Mhlauri.
The former Hwange goalkeeper however suffered a terrible knee injury while on Champions League duty with CAPS United in Lesotho the following year, signalling the beginning of the end of his long playing career.

Two years after his nasty injury Munkuli tried to revive his career with Motor Action and later Dynamos before joining Harare City who were then in Division One in 2009.

It was at the Sunshine Boys that he ventured into coaching when he was appointed their goalkeepers’ coach .
But after the pair of assistant coach George Madira and team manager Pardon Chivasa parted ways with Harare City, Munkuli was the elevated to be the second in command from Mawiwi in the Sunshine Boys’ dressing room.

Yesterday Munkuli who also won the Buddie Cup with CAPS United in 2004 said Harare City had reached a stage where they needed self belief and the confidence that they could also cross the line and earn their championship stripes.

“I am not looking much at the team we are playing against or focusing on what people are saying. But we are just concentrating on what we will do in our last match of the season.

“ It will be good to lift that trophy again after winning it in 2004 when I was still playing for CAPS United.
“At this stage what we need are virtues such as self believe, discipline and unity of purpose which I learnt when I was still a player from such coaches like Charles Mhlauri at CAPS United…that helped us helped us to win the league,’’ Munkuli said.

The Harare City assistant coach said they also needed to prove that their 4-0 mauling of Bosso at Rufaro last Sunday was not just a flash in the pan.

“We should maintain consistency. After beating Highlanders 4-0 in the last game people are expecting a lot from us but we just need to focus and maintain what we have been doing during the season.

“This is a game we just have to win. We don’t need a lot of goals but just a win. We are working on mental strength, we know that the players face a lot of pressure with people saying a lot of things,” said Munkuli.

The coach said their small stature in the Premiership where giants are always expected to excel had helped them to reach this stage as no one ever really looked at them or gave them a real chance.

“We are a small club and we knew if we were to do our job we would do it on our own as no one would help us. We were never disturbed by anything and even last week when all talk was about our competitors and how they had fared and match officiating we never lost sleep.
“We knew we would win the game against Highlanders and we told the players that we are going to do it and lets go and work hard and have a common purpose’’.

Munkuli also paid tribute to his charges whom he described as a disciplined lot.
“ We thank the boys for listening to the coaches and from day one of the season we told them that champions are not born but they are made. It would be nice to win the league and to take the trophy from such a team as Dynamos,” said Munkuli.

Although they have been working hard for much of this season, Harare City are also seeking Divine Intervention in order to clear the CAPS United hurdle and join an elite group of teams that have had had the privilege of being been crowned Premiership champions which includes DeMabre, Bosso, CAPS United, Motor Action, Gunners and Monomotapa.

It is also a tough Sunday on the lower end of the table with six teams still battling to avoid the fourth and last relegation slot that would see them join Tripple B, Motor Action and Monomotapa who have already been demoted.