Misheck Selemani’s penalty was enough to give in form Karonga United a 1-0 TNM Super League win over Mzuni FC on Saturday at the Karonga Stadium.
The impressive Selemani who won the penalty himself after a jinking run in the visitor’s six yards box made no mistake from the spot as he coolly slammed the penalty to hand the home side a win.
The match which was not a classic encounter by any means saw the crocodiles of Karonga do enough to collect their third win on the bounce despite the away side also missing a penalty of their own through Lameck Njowala.
The green intellectuals who came into the game after holding third placed Kamuzu Barracks to a goalless draw last weekend were the better side in the second half and forced the Karonga goal custodian Antony Singini to one or two saves.
Gilbert Chirwa’s side despite having the majority of the possession could not turn it to regular meaningful chances as the home side’s defence stood strong to earn the three points.
Karonga’s dominant first half display yielded a breakthrough eight minutes from half time as Selemani confidently scored from the spot after he won the penalty.
Mzuni grew into the match but found openings hard to come by and when they were handed a lifeline to equalize after half time from the penalty-kick, Njowala’s spot was fantastically saved by Singini to preserve the home side’s advantage.
Gule Mwaisope and Antony Mfune had late chances to seal a comfortable home win but their wastefulness counted for very little as Karonga saw the match out to climb up to eighth on the log table.
Speaking in a post-match interview, Karonga United’s coach Dan Dzinkambani expressed delight in his charges win and performance.
“I thought we were superb today especially in the first half where we played some great football hence the win is fully deserved,” he said.
However, his counterpart Chirwa, bemoaned his side’s missed penalty saying it contributed to them losing the three points.
“We had a slow start to the game and we picked up more in the second half and I thought we at least merited a draw from the game and we should have got that point if we didn’t miss our penalty,” a frustrated Chirwa articulated.
