MANICA Diamonds coach Jairos Tapera has commended the Baltemar Brito-led Highlanders technical team, saying they have done well to build a beast of a team this term.
Bosso have remained unbeaten in the league so far and are sitting on a five-match winning streak.
They look good to end a 17-year wait for a league title and their cause has been aided by a strong support base which fills up Barbourfields Stadium each time they are at home.
Highlanders edged Manica Diamonds 1-0 at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday, taking their points tally to 34, maintaining a four point gap between them and Ngezi Platinum Stars.
After the defeat, Tapera praised the Highlanders coaches, jokingly saying the ambience at Emagumeni made him wish he was Bosso coach.
“These guys (Brito and his assistants Antonio Torres, Madinda Ndlovu and Joel Luphahla) have done a wonderful job; maybe you could say it’s the motivation part, I don’t know but I think they have done very well; thumbs up to them,” the former Triangle gaffer said.
“I only hope they take longer to lose a game. I can also say we want to see how they are going to react when they lose the first game, but I think they have done a wonderful job and added to this crowd I wish I could coach here.”
Manica Diamonds remained on position three with 26 points following the loss after FC Platinum played a goalless draw with Hwange at the Colliery.
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Tapera was flattered by the atmosphere at Barbourfields Stadium.
“It was a wonderful atmosphere. We have been lacking this for the past seven years and have never witnessed such a bumper crowd. If it was me, if it was my team, playing at home with such a crowd, I would do exactly what Highlanders are doing and they are now fortunate that three-quarters of the teams are playing here, that is an advantage to them. Imagine, we are playing our home games at Gibbo, which is 800km from Mutare. We are always on the road. It impacts a lot when we look at how many games we want to win,” Tapera said.
He added: “It’s a difficult situation. We need to dig deep and read books about how we can arrest the fatigue. We are going back to Mutare tomorrow (today). Obviously, on Tuesday we are not training. We will train on Thursday and Friday we are going to Mutare, which is more than 800km. Our next game will be played at Gibbo. Usually, we train once or twice a week. That is difficult, you can’t plan or even correct some mistakes that these players are making. We only do that through a lot of talking but these things need to be done on the field of play.”
Manica Diamonds have also been hard hit by the injury to their star player and goal-getter Fortune Binzi, who is expected back in three weeks. Highlanders’ left-back Godfrey Makaruse also suffered a serious injury at training last Thursday, and Brito has ruled him out for the rest of the season.
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