The ManicaPost
Ray Bande recently in TRIANGLE
MANICA Diamonds are gobbling around $12 000 each time they travel 350km to Gibo Stadium in Triangle for every ‘home’ match, Post Sport has learnt.
The sole Manicaland Premiership outfit has been paying through the nose just to fulfill what is ideally supposed to be a less expensive match at home but now being played some 350km away since PSL authorities feel Manicaland does not have a match venue fit to host Premiership football.
While that has been the trend in their expenditure, the Gem Boys have earned next to nothing on the turnstiles as less than 100 people pay to watch their matches at Gibo Stadium.
In fact, Manica Diamonds grossed a paltry $185 after a total of 27 fans paid to watch an otherwise exciting Castle Lager Premiership encounter against Yadah FC at Gibbo Stadium in Triangle.
“We are using an average of about $12 000 each time we come to play our matches here at Triangle. These are costs that we had not anticipated therefore the strain on the budget,” said a club official who declined to be named.
The Mutare based outfit, whose efforts to use nearby Vengere Stadium in Rusape after homologation by the Zifa First Instance Body are being frustrated by PSL demands for further renovation works, continues to feel the pinch of playing their home games away from their fans in Manicaland.
In fact, it is now a norm for the Mutare side to play home matches that resemble training sessions owing to the paltry crowd that is always in attendance.
In Sunday’s encounter, the Gem Boys dominated the first half of the encounter as they created scoring opportunities but failed to find the net owing to lack of precision in front of goal.
The Gem Boys could have surged ahead 10 minutes into the encounter when striker set up an unmarked Pritchard Mpelele a few yard from the edge of the box but the former Harare City defender missed the target by a few inches as his blistering shot went over the crossbar.
Two minutes later Manica Diamonds were back to torment the visitors’ rearguard when Timire Mamvura lurched onto a loose ball about 15 yards from the goal line and fired a shot that rattled the crossbar before the ball went out of play.
In one of the very few moments that Yadah caused anxious moments for Manica Diamonds, exciting winger Tafadzwa Mukahlera dribbled past right back Lawrence Masibera before setting up Johannes Sibanda whose effort went slightly off target.
Brian Chikweya could have propelled Yadah into the lead when Yadah won a free kock just outside the box in the 40th minute but his beautiful volley hit the crossbar and bounced back into play.
However, it was striker Stephen ‘Dealer’ Sibanda who put Manica Diamonds into lead in the 49th minute with a well struck grounder that nestled in the left corner of the net leaving Yadah goalkeeper Issah Ali well beaten.
Tendai Mukono doubled the Manica Diamonds lead after he received a pass from Sibanda and neatly placed the ball past a diving Ali in the 75th minute.
Second half substitute Marshal Mudehwe the put the game beyond Yadah’s reach when he slotted home a shot from close range after receiving a through pass from man of the match Sibanda.
Manica Diamonds coach Luke Masomere still hopes and pray that his team will be granted permission to use Vengere Stadium.
“I just hope and pray that we will be allowed to use Vengere Stadium in the near future because we are travelling too much. It is disturbing our training sessions let alone the strain it has on the budget of the club. We were in Kariba last week and here we are in Triangle this week. This is just too much for us,” said Masomere in a post match interview at Gibo Stadium in Triangle after their match against Yadah.
