The ManicaPost
Ray Bande in RUSAPE
Manica Diamonds…..(0) 0
FC Platinum……………(1) 2
CASTLE Lager Premiership side Manica Diamonds caretaker coach Johanisi Nhumwa is skating on thin ice in his fight for relegation survival after his team lost 2-0 on home turf to FC Platinum at Vengere Stadium today.
The defeat to the Zvishavane platinum miners is he second in back-to-back league match losses after previous weekend’s loss to Ngezi Platinum.
With four rounds of league matches remaining and 38 points in the bag, Manica Diamonds is not yet safe from relegation.
Be that as it may, Nhumwa is still confident of survivng relegation.
After the final whistle, the former Masvingo United trainer bemoaned the absence of Jaure.
“We still have everything to fight for. We still have four games to play and we know we will get points from some of the matches. We are confident that we will survive relegation.
“It is sad that we missed Partson Jaure. It was very clear. He is a leader on field. Even the second goal we conceded it was because of a blunder by a player who came on to replace Jaure,” he said.
On the other hand, FC Platinum kept their hopes of retaining the title alive when they scored two goals either side of the breather to beat Manica Diamonds in this entertaining encounter.
The result was great relief to visiting FC Platinum coach Lizwe Sweswe after being made to publicly apologise for his teams shock defeat at the hands of Bulawayo Chiefs in the previous round of league matches.
All eyes were on Sweswe last week when fans blocked his vehicle as he was about to leave the match venue after the defeat against Amakhosi.
Lady luck finally smiled at him!
In today’s encounter, the home team started on the offensive with deadlocked midfielder Last Jesi casing a number of anxious moments for visiting FC Platinum inside the first ten minutes of the match.
However, it was FC Platinum that made the most of a few chances they created when well positoned Gift Mbweti tapped into a yawning net in the 16th minute after the Manica Diamonds backline failed to deal with a hard and low cross from exciting winger Guvye Nsiali.
Manica Diamonds had a fine chance to level terms six minutes after the break when FC Platinum’s Gift Belo handled just outside the box but Jesi’s screamer was parried to safety by the impressive FC Platinum goalminder Francis Tizayi.
It was clear that the home team badly missed veteran defender Pattson “Yellow” Jaure as jittery Gilbert Timoti, who has only made two appearances from the bench since the season started, failed to fill in the void.
Timoti was horibly exposed in the 73rd minute when he was left for dead by slippery Rodwell Chinyengetere and the former Baroka FC forward lurched towards goal, fired home a powerful shot inside the box to extend the visitors’ lead.
From then on, play switched from one end to the other with both teams exchanging raids.
The result left FC Platinum coach Lizwe Sweswe a relieved man.
“I think we played well as a team and got the result we wanted. The boys were disciplined both in attack and defense. That is exactly what we wanted and it paid off,” he said.
Sweswe said the victory over Manica Diamonds brightened their chances of fighting for top hounors.
“I think the race is now wide open. This result gives us hope that we can still achieve the title. It’s any mans’ game now. We just have to keep fighting to win the remaining matches and hope results from other matches work in our favour,” he said.
