Sports / Soccer
FC Platinum bounces back
26 Jun 2016 at 10:20hrs | Views
FC PLATINUM coach Norman Mapeza hailed his charges for bouncing back from their first Castle Lager Premier Soccer League defeat in over a year with a clinical display at Mandava yesterday.
With Pure Platinum Play falling 1-2 at home to ZPC Kariba in their last match, Mapeza had demanded a reaction from his team.
And he got it as early as the second minute with big forward Rodwell Chinyengetere slotting the home side into the lead.
FC Platinum continued to pile on the pressure but the visitors, whose defence had veteran defender Guthrie Zhokinyi as the main man, stood firm.
However, Triangle offered very little going forward and on the few occasions they managed to ask questions of Petroes Mhari, they found the FC Platinum goalie unyielding.
Substitute Ismael Wadi, who came in for Tarisai Rukanda just after the hour mark, then secured the points for the home side deep into injury time. A long ball from Mhari left the Triangle defence in tatters and afforded Wadi room to pick his spot.
Mapeza felt his men were full value for the three points. "I think in the first half we played better football, we had some opportunities. In the second half they were coming at us, it's normal in football but we were very disciplined at the back and that kept us going.
"In the second half also we got that second goal in good time and I am happy we bounced back. I told the boys it would be great for us to get a goal in the first fifteen minutes to unsettle them (opponents), we did that and the game opened and we got some good chances," he said.
The visitors' coach David "Yogi" Mandigora bemoaned his team's lack of concentration at crucial stages of the game. "We missed a number of chances and it's an area we are working on. We have gone for two games without scoring now, we didn't score against Hwange and today again we failed to score.
"Conceding inside the first two minutes as well as in injury are signs that we lacked concentration at very crucial moments," said Mandigora.
With Pure Platinum Play falling 1-2 at home to ZPC Kariba in their last match, Mapeza had demanded a reaction from his team.
And he got it as early as the second minute with big forward Rodwell Chinyengetere slotting the home side into the lead.
FC Platinum continued to pile on the pressure but the visitors, whose defence had veteran defender Guthrie Zhokinyi as the main man, stood firm.
However, Triangle offered very little going forward and on the few occasions they managed to ask questions of Petroes Mhari, they found the FC Platinum goalie unyielding.
Mapeza felt his men were full value for the three points. "I think in the first half we played better football, we had some opportunities. In the second half they were coming at us, it's normal in football but we were very disciplined at the back and that kept us going.
"In the second half also we got that second goal in good time and I am happy we bounced back. I told the boys it would be great for us to get a goal in the first fifteen minutes to unsettle them (opponents), we did that and the game opened and we got some good chances," he said.
The visitors' coach David "Yogi" Mandigora bemoaned his team's lack of concentration at crucial stages of the game. "We missed a number of chances and it's an area we are working on. We have gone for two games without scoring now, we didn't score against Hwange and today again we failed to score.
"Conceding inside the first two minutes as well as in injury are signs that we lacked concentration at very crucial moments," said Mandigora.
Source - Sunday Mail
