Wanderers breaks away
Be Forward Wanderers put their Fisd Challenge Cup defence in motion with a routine 3-0 win over Masters Security FC Saturday to reach the quarter-final.
But the Nomads Coach Bob Mpinganjira was unimpressed with his charges’ laissez faire approach to the round-of-16 contest, played in front of a good crowd on a humid afternoon at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.
Wanderers, who date in the quarter-final the winner of another round-of-16 match between Hangover FC and Mighty Tigers, should have been out of sight in the first half but most of their players were complacent.
Little wonder, Mpinganjira was happy with the result, achieved through Felix Zulu, second half substitutes Misheck Botomani and Mike Kaziputa goals, but not with the performance.
“When we go back to training we need to work on complacency. In the first half, we did not play the way we should have because the players were complacent,” Mpinganjira said.
His counterpart, Audlow Makonyola, chose to pick positives from the rubble of the defeat in his first game in charge.
“You can say it is a bad start but as a coach I am happy with the way the guys played. I did not expect them to play this way. We can build something from this,” Makonyola said.
During the game, Wanderers maintained the starting line-up of the squad that beat Civil Sporting Club 2-0 the previous weekend with Zicco Mkanda and Vincent Nyangulu getting the nod upfront at the expense of leading scorer Babatunde Adepoju.
On the other hand, Makonyola opted for experienced Juma Yatina and Mussa Manyenje to lead the front line.
To the surprise of the fans that were scattered around the stadium, Wanderers, while able to build play from the back, lacked urgency on the ball and hunger for scoring.
The Nomads’ cause was not helped when Nyangulu left the pitch inside the opening five minutes after getting injured. Babatunde replaced him.
Babatunde hit the ground running sending a low cross from the left wing to the box but Mkanda shockingly failed to apply a simple finish to the ball which flew out of play.
On the other end, Wanderers defender Peter Cholopi cleared off the line Yatina’s shot in the 20th minute before again firing wide in another attempt later on.
However, against the run of play Wanderers scored through winger Zulu’s finish from Masters goalkeeper Chimwemwe Kumkwawa’s fumble of Francisco Madinga’s effort on the dot of half time.
It was a typical case of Zulu starting and finishing the move following his penetrative run from the left wing.
Mpinganjira withdrew Madinga and Mkanda for Kaziputa and Botomani a move that saw Zulu drifting inside into a midfield attacking role.
The change injected life in Wanderers’ attack as Kaziputa released Botomani who lost his challenger before placing his strike to the far top corner of goalkeeper Kumkwawa in the 56th minute.
Minutes later, Kumkwawa lept to keep out winger Isaac Kaliyati’s free-kick after Bernard Chimaimba had fouled Babatunde.
At this stage, the Nomads looked better but Masters were not done.
The visitors’ captain Eneya Banda played an incisive pass to Yatina who did the same to Chimaimba but the former Wizards forward sent his shot into the side-netting.
Masters were to be punished for the wastefulness as Kaziputa scored the third goal in the 88th minute, sending the ball into the empty net from range after connecting Kumkwawa’s clearance of Thole’s kick aimed at Babatunde.
LINE-UPS:
Wanderers: Thole, Cholopi, Lucky Malata, Stanley Sanudi, Ted Sumani, Zulu, Madinga (Kaziputa), Alfred Manyozo, Kaliyati, Nyangulu- (Babatunde), Mkanda (Botomani).
Masters: Kumkwawa, Maneno Nyoni, John Chalamanda, Chimwemwe Royal, Chikondi Maloya, Banda, Yatina, Chimaimba, Beston Jimu (Nkhoma), Suwedi Limbani (Tchokhotho), Musa Manyenje.