…..Eagles FC 0-1 Silver
By Edwin Mbewe
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Reserve Bank sponsored side Silver Strikers FC registered their first win of the season over Blue Eagles FC in a successful revenge mission.
The Bankers were 0-1 winners over the Policemen courtesy of Chimwemwe Idana’s goal that came within the first 5 minutes of the first half on a rebound when their former goalie Brighton Munthali saved the ball with his foot after a defensive poor communication .
Blue Eagles FC defeated Silver Strikers FC home and away last season with 1-0 margins, today it was their pay back as the Area 47 giants came a changed side under their new coach Pieter De Jongh.
After the goal the match was marred with tempers that saw Blue Eagles FC captain Schumacher Kuwali and defender Nickson Mwase for the visitors shown red cards for exchanging blows.
From this juncture, the play from home team was unpleasant as they failed to do everything in a proper way hence the visitors took over the dominance and they exchanged good passes.
Eagles defense was a bit shaken hence allowing Silver keep on knocking, which resulted the team hitting the post almost twice.
However, the physical game from both teams continued for the rest of the minutes that took away the much anticipated excitement of the match.
In the 33rd minute of the game, Chimwemwe Idana could have added the lead of the visitors but ended up hitting the post after a sexy run from the right into the box.
The Policemen biggest chance came at 35th minute when midfielder Gilbert Chirwa took the ball from Kaunga’s feet before making a beautiful dribble past Charles Thom, but he lacked marksmanship in the battle field as he hit Whisky Oscar.
After noticing danger, Eliah Kananji made several changes amongst them, Laurent Banda, Lanken Mwale who came in for Micium Mhone and Tonic Viyuyi.
The changes changed the tempo of the game, but they were too far too little to get an equaliser and winning goal for Kananji, as Christopher Gototo and Trouble Banda’ efforts were denied by Silver goalie Thom.
In the dying minutes Silver got other chances as Patrick Macheso and Gift Chunga hit the post and shot wide respectively.
After the match Silver Strikers FC dutch coach, hailed his boys for the victory while describing Blue Eagles FC play as RUGBY.
“We played well today, we were the only team that played football, our counterpart did not play football, it was like Rugby, we hit the posts twice. It feels good to collect 4 points from two games, we need to focus on our next assignment”, De Jongh said.
Christopher Sibale Assistant coach Blue Eagles FC acknowledged the defeat but attributed it to the poor officiation.
“That’s part of the game, we admit we have lost to Silver, we have to go back and see technically where we went wrong and then bounce.The referee couldn’t control the game well.The red card of our captain indeed brought a negative impact “,Said Sibale.
The loss for the host Blue Eagles FC means they are winless in two matches after a 1-1 draw at the same venue against Redlions FC in the first week.
While Silver Strikers FC registered their first win in 2023 season after a 1-1 draw against the defending champions FCB Nyasa Big Bullets FC last weekend at the Bingu National Stadium in their league opener.