'Mutizwa, Kangwa exit affecting us'

The departures of utility player Bruce Kangwa and striker Knox Mutizwa have had a negative impact on Highlanders according to Bosso chief executive officer Ndumiso Gumede.

Mutizwa joined South African side Bidvest Wits at the start of June while Kangwa recently signed for Tanzania side Azam FC.

At the time of leaving Bosso, Kangwa was the Castle Lager Premiership's leading scorer with seven goals while Mutizwa had found the back of the net on four occassions.

After a promising start to their season, Errol Akbay's side seems to have lost their way in recent outings as they suffered three consecutive defeats.

That wretched run of form has seen the Bulawayo giants drop to third place on the log some seven points behind log leaders FC Platinum.

"Our supporters are up in arms with us as usual and as administration we understand that," Gumede said.

"Having lost Knox to Bidvest and lately Bruce to Azam, those people had 11 goals, when you lose prominent goal scorers it's difficult to settle," he said.

Bosso technical director Cosmos "Tsano" Zulu also bemoaned the loss of the two influential squad members.

"With the absence of Knox and Bruce, we lost the combination that was working, so now we are in transformation to get the right combination and that is why we are getting problems," Zulu said.

Zulu also claimed that the other reasons why Bosso posted poor results in their last three matches is because the fixtures were congested which did not give the players enough time to rest.

He said most of the players in the team were young boys who are still adjusting to the demands of the top flight league.

"The boys haven't developed the stamina to play the congested games...but people must appreciate we have been getting results with inexperienced players," Zulu said.

He also assured the supporters to be patient as the technical team was doing all it could to come back to winning ways.

"I appeal to the Bosso family to give us a chance. We are going to work hard and bring good results by the end of the year. All we want is for our supporters to appreciate the situation we are in building the team," he said.

Meanwhile, Gumede called on the police to be more vigilant in dealing with hooligans at the home matches.

This weekend, Bosso take on stuttering defending champions Chicken Inn at Barbourfields Stadium hoping to end their poor run.

Since the beginning of the season Bosso have been fined $4 000 after fans threw missiles into the pitch in two separate league matches against FC Platinum and CAPS United at Barbourfields.

"We bring in 60 police officers, then surely they are not there just for display that they have new uniforms, new batons and dogs that can bite and horses," Gumede said.

"We hardly ever see them arrest these people (hooligans). Surely if a small crowd of mal-contents moves into the pitch, the police that come there in plain clothes they can just go behind, move them off bring the dogs and arrest them such that they send a clear message that if you misbehave you will be arrested."

He added: "But they just end there and start retreating. The ones in Harare actually started running away does that make sense, why are they coming to the match then?"