Bosso seek home win

Bulawayo giants Highlanders will be looking to capitalise on home advantage when they face Midlands outfit Shabanie Mine in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL) match at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday.

Bosso come into the match on the back of a goalless draw with Chapungu in their opening match of the season last week, a result that exposed the former league champions' struggles in the goalscoring department.

By contrast, their opponents on Sunday, Shabanie Mine, had a mini goal harvest of their own last Sunday, thumping Lowveld outfit, Triangle United at Maglas Stadium in Zvishavane.

Highlanders head coach, Kelvin Kaindu, who oversaw last week's draw in Gweru, will miss the Shabanie Mine clash as he will be travelling to the United Kingdom for the UEFA B coaching badge license course, which is reportedly his penultimate trip to the European nation before he graduates next month.

Bosso assistant coach Mark Mathe, who will be in charge of the side on Sunday, Thursday said the absence of the Zambian coach would not dampen the team's spirits.

"The players are aware that Kaindu is away and that he is coming back. They are content and there are no signs of anxiety. Their spirits are not dampened over his absence and they have faith that we will make it as they are in good hands," he said.

Mathe said the technical team assessed Highlanders' performance against Chapungu and came up with what they believe would be the panacea to the team's scoring woes as they seek to position themselves for another title push.

"In our first game against Chapungu, we were supposed to win but we couldn't. We failed to capitalise on the chances we created, but in this weekend's game against Shabanie Mine we want to win," said Mathe.

"After we play a game we evaluate and note all the errors that we would have made. So we did the same with the Chapungu game and noted that we failed to utilise the chances we created. We have since worked on rectifying that and we will try our best to correct it on Sunday."

"We have been having our training sessions specialising in the striking positions all week and we hope to convert all the opportunities we create against Shabanie."

Mathe stated that Bosso would be seeking to make their home advantage count, though they are likely to be without new acquisition, Cleopas ‘Balotelli' Dube, who has a slight knock.

"We are going to take advantage of our home ground and in my assessment at training today (yesterday), the team is looking good. We should be able to get it right against Shabanie and kick start our campaign."