Silver Strikers have moved to second place on the TNM Super League log with a narrowly 1-0 win over Kamuzu Barracks (KB) in a match played at Civo Stadium in Lilongwe on Saturday.
A solitary goal from Mphatso Phillimon was enough for the bankers to rectify maximum points which are crucial at this stage in as far as league title contention is concerned.
Despite wasting several scoring opportunities Phillimon captalised a chance he got following poor communication between KB’s goalie, Lemani Nthala, and defender, Pilirani Makupe, to put the ball past the former.
Bankers’ assistant coach, Peter Mgangira, in a post-match interview praised his boys for a nice performance which has resulted in rewarding them with vital three points as battle for championship is still on.
“Performance was better today, we are happy that we have won today. We told our boys to work hard so that we should win, we got the goal and most chances also.
“We are taking each game as it comes, we aren’t focusing much on what others are doing and where they are, such wins are giving us hope and courage [that we can still grab the title],” he said.
On his part, KB’s head coach, Temwa Msuku, pointed fingers at his players that the mistake which bankers utilized to get a goal was avoidable, but he was quick to say that it happens in the game of football.
“Let’s accept we have lost, indeed we were playing against a bigger side but we weren’t supposed to lose this match since we had an upper hand of getting the victory here only that the mistake which we did was avoidable,” said Msuku.
Silver Strikers are now second with five points behind leaders Nyasa Big Bullets who have got 52 points while Kamuzu Barracks lie eighth on the log with 31 points from 25 matches played so far.
Elsewhere, Dave Mtchini equalized late for TN Stars to salvage a point away at Mulanje Park Stadium in a one all draw match against Azam Tigers who scored through Dan Kumwenda.
Tigers are now sixth on the log table with 31 points and Kasungu based outfit is ranked on position 10 with 30 points and each has remained with six matches to wrap up the season.
In another top tier encounter, Chifundo Phimbi’s brace ensured that Mafco should collect maximum points on top of Blue Eagles at Chitowe ground in Nkhotakota.
Maxwell Salambula’s lone goal was not enough for the Malawi Police Service side to get at least a point from the encounter as they still lie fifth from top with 32 points from 24 matches.
Mafco are still second from the bottom and are destined to lower league in the central region if they will not pull up their socks as they have currently 20 points with seven matches to wind up their 2018 season’s assignments.
