….Silver 1-0 Chitipa
By Lusekero Mhango
KARONGA-(MaraviPost)-Maxwell Paipi’s lone strike in the 7th minute of the game was enough to see Silver Strikers earn a hard-fought 0-1 victory over Chitipa United in a TNM Super League match played on Wednesday afternoon.
The Central Bankers dominated the encounter from start to finish in an action-packed display led by man of the match Chimwemwe Idana in the process ended the home side’s unbeaten home record, having gone 13 league encounters without a defeat.
The keenly anticipated game played at the Soccer Cathedral of the Karonga Stadium, saw fourth-place Chitipa host third-place Silverr having already played out a goalless draw in the corresponding fixture in Lilongwe in the first round.
The visitors who came into the encounter on the back of a 0-0 draw with Karonga United on Sunday at the same venue, began the game strongly with Idana at the heart of every move.
Silver’s early dominance was rewarded in the 7th minute as Paipi evaded his markers to head in Duncan Nyoni’s well-flighted corner kick.
The away side continued to pile pressure on a tiring-looking Chitipa with Idana and Patrick Macheso going close to doubling their lead but both shot wide in the 14th and 31st minute of the game respectively.
The home side’s only real chance of note in the first half came through Stain Patrick who saw his effort go narrowly wide past Pilirani Mapila’s goal in the 38th minute.
In the second half, the away side continued to dominate the play and should have sealed a comfortable win but substitute Stenie Davie shot wide with only George Chikooka to beat having been played through by Idana.
Despite MacDonald Mtetemera introducing new faces from the bench including Jackson Beza and Aaron Kayira to bring life into the hosts’ display Silver closed out the game to claim all three points.
In a post-match interview Chitipa coach Mtetemera, attributed the defeat down to fatigue from his players.
“We have played a lot of games in a short period with lots of traveling involved hence my players were not at their brilliant best,” he said.
Nevertheless, Silver Strikers coach Pieter De Jong hailed his boys for their display in the win.
“We dominated the game for 90 minutes at a bad pitch not conducive for playing football which pleased me the most in our display today,” explained De Jong.
With the victory, Silver move to 50 points still in third place in the league standings from 27 matches while Chitipa remained in fourth with 44 points to their name from the same number of matches.
