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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter

TROUBLED Tenax believe that if they manage to win against CAPS United in the Castle Lager Premiership football this weekend they would have done themselves a huge favour in the relegation matrix.

The Prisons and Correctional Services side are facing relegation with 21 points from 26 matches.

They are one place above basement club Whawha who are on 20 points.

Tenax have gone for six straight games without a victory. Their last victory was on July 10 when they stunned visiting Chicken Inn 1-0.

But they have struggled to reproduce that effort and have suffered five defeats and a draw since then.

Yesterday the club manager Lloyd Chinawa said they need to start winning games if they are serious about fighting relegation.

“We will fight to the last game. We hope we get a positive result against CAPS United this Sunday in Harare,” said Chinawa.

“We are telling the players to remain focused and work extra harder. We told them we still have a chance to survive if win our next game against CAPS United.

“It’s not going to be easy if we don’t win games for ourselves,” he said.

Last weekend Tenax lost to ZPC Kariba (2-0), before that they lost (3-1) to Herentals, (2-0) to Dynamos and had a goalless draw against Highlanders.

It has been a downward spiral for the Mutare side that was promoted into the top flight season in 2019 but had to delay their debut due to Covid lockdowns. This season is their first proper season in the league and is in danger of the dreaded chop at the end of the season.

Chinawa says the strike force has been their Achilles Heel.

“We are creating chances but we don’t put the ball behind the nets.

“For the past three games against Dynamos, Herentals and ZPC Kariba our defence made a single mistake and we got punished. We played very well against DeMbare but we let in two stupid goals in less than three minutes. It was the same thing against Herentals, we were leading in the first half but conceded two goals in less than five minutes in the second half.

“Maybe it is fatigue, I don’t know because we played well in the first half of the season.

Tenax forwards Malvern Dumbura and Takunda Mapara have been blunt in front of the goal.

Dumbura has only scored one goal so far this season while Mapara has three goals. The team also relies on midfielder Panashe Mutasa who has five goals.

The departure of veteran forward Farai Mugumwa mid-season has greatly affected the team. Mugumwa moved to Manica Diamonds during the transfer window.