Nyasa Big Bullets and Be Forward Wanderers will return to the field of play for yet another crucial TNM Super League fixture against Kamuzu Barracks and Masters Security as the title race reaches its boiling point.
The defending champions brushed aside Blue Eagles 4-0 on Sunday to go a point clear over their fiercest rivals and fellow title contenders Be Forward Wanderers FC.
In the first round, the military side won 1-0 courtesy of a second half strike from Ndaona Daisi and the return leg will be an opportune time for the People’s Team to avenge that defeat.
Bullets coach Kalista Pasuwa believes that the Soldiers will give them a tough time but he is very confident of collecting maximum points.
“We won against Blue Eagles on Sunday but I have advised the boys to put aside that victory and focus on the upcoming game. We lost the first round match to them and we have been working very hard to rectify what exactly went wrong and we hope that it won’t happen again because we need the points,” he said.
On whether playing three games within ten days will pile more pressure on his men, the mentor said: “Remember, those fixtures were coming, we played Blue Eagles who had three games within five days and you could see the way they were losing points so we need also to be very careful in order for us not to overburn the players and we have a squad of 28 players so we need to give every player a chance in order to survive this crucial period in as far as our title defense is concerned.
After spending the better part of the season as contenders, the 2016 champions have been brought back down to earth as they are now 8th in the standings with 39 points from 27 games.
The last time they played Bullets at Kamuzu Stadium was in 2018 where they lost 6-0 to the defending champions.
At Nankhaka Stadium, Wanderers will be hoping to keep on piling pressure on Bullets when they play relegation threatened Masters Security.
The 2017 league winners are coming from a 2-0 victory over Dwangwa United at Chitowe.
However, underrating Masters Security at this stage of the league might prove too suicidal as most teams are determined to fight their own way out of the drop zone.
Mathematically, Masters Security have a chance to survive and their first step towards achieving that is to beat Wanderers FC.
As it is, dropping points at the stage of the league will be a disaster but by the end of the day, men will be separated from boys.
The two title contenders are just separated by a point, with Bullets leading the race with 55 points from 25 games.
