WHAWHA . . . . . . . . (0) 1 HARARE CITY . . . . (1) 1
WHAWHA’S relegation from The Castle Lager Premier Soccer League was confirmed with two games still to play, despite holding Harare City at Rufaro Stadium yesterday.
BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
Yesterday’s draw meant WhaWha, who are on 21 points from 28 matches can cannot make up the eight points they need to catch 12th-placed Tsholotsho, while Harare City remained in seventh position.
The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service side were all but down before kick-off, as they needed nothing short of victory to give themselves a slender chance of surviving relegation.
Kudakwashe Kumwala’s opportunistic strike after a goalmouth scramble in the WhaWha box in added time of the first half left coach Lloyd Mutasa needing to score twice in the second half.
Although substitute Roy Useni poked home WhaWha’s equaliser with his first touch of the ball in the 47th minute, his team’s fate had already been sealed, as they became the second newly-promoted side to be relegated this season.
Harare City had a number of opportunities to secure all three points, with Munashe Chinembeza’s curling free kick brilliantly saved by Philip Nhete late in the match. Mutasa said his charges had learnt a lot from their short stint in the top-flight and would bounce back from Division One.
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“We have been relegated, but I feel we learnt a lot.
It’s not the end of the worldand we are confident we can come back again. We have seen teams going down to Division One and coming back,” he said.
Harare City coach, Taurai Mangwiro, whose side has now failed to register a win in their last six league matches, said the early substitution of Crispen Dickson after a head injury, affected the rhythm of his side.
“That early setback, where we were forced to make an injury- inspired substitution put our game plan into disarray, but I thought we had done well to take a half-time lead,” he said. Line-ups WhaWha: P Nhete, R Horonga, P Maburutse, B Chikwekwete (B Chidzero, 60), N Gandari, L Genti, F Mwerenga, N Bude (R Useni, 46), R Chitepo, N Mazivisa, A Matewu (T Muponda, 90)
Harare City: M Nyamupangedengu, Chimwemwe, M Chinembeza, T Ndhlovu, C Dickson (D Kutyauripo, 13), M Vengesai, T Samanja (J Chipangura, 82), W Munondo, K Kumwala, O Mukuradare (J Jam, 57), T Chawapiwa
