Kelvin Katema’s second half strike was enough to inspire Red Lions to a hard thought 1-nil victory over Azam Tigers in a league match played on Sunday afternoon to move out of the relegation zone.
It was rather a dull match as both teams failed to play brilliant football in the entire 90 minutes.
Tigers, coming straight from their 7-1 victory over Karonga United last week, were frustrated as their opponents opted to play aerial and long balls no wonder there were only few clear goal scoring opportunities were created and it was goalless at half time.
In the second half, the Soldiers introduced Katema as they wanted goals knowing that their position on the log table was not convincing as Tigers continued to struggle, the Soldiers got their goal through Katema who capitalized on a defensive relapse by Peter Cholopi and Clifton Kankhuni, allowing the substitute to put the ball into the back of the net, 1-0.
Tigers tried their level best to try to force a draw from the match but the visitors stood firm to collect their first three points in the second round and eventually moved out of the drop zone to 11th in the standings.
At Civo Stadium, Manase Chiyesa scored the only goal to inspire Kamuzu Barracks to a 1-nil victory over Mzuni FC who have returned to their base with nothing from their two away from home fixtures after losing 2-1 to Silver Strikers on Saturday.
The result sees the Lilongwe based Soldiers climbing up to fourth in the standings with 34 points from 20 games.
As for the Green Intellectuals, they are yet to register a win in the second round and the going is getting tougher for a team that performed brilliantly in the first round of the top flight.
Mafco are the current league leaders with 37 points from 19 games played so far.
Ma Reds osaphwekesa apo bii relegation ikuwashulani