Relief for Bosso

BULAWAYO giants Highlanders finally tasted victory after completing a league double over How Mine who they beat 2-0 at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday.

Bosso beat the gold miners by an identical score line in the reverse fixture. On Sunday, they got their goals from stand-in skipper Erick Mudzingwa and Allen Gahadzikwa.

Mudzingwa said Sunday's victory was a relief following a string of poor results. Highlanders had gone for six matches without a win.

"It's good to win again because morale was really low in camp and this came as a relief to us as players and I'm sure the supporters feel the same way too.

"We hope this victory marks the return of better fortunes. We will continue working hard and fighting to the last game," said Mudzingwa.

The long-serving Bosso player, who has been at the club for a decade, also believes they still have an outside chance of winning the championship.

"I know some people may think I'm crazy, but the championship race isn't over yet.

"We can't be ruled out and what we just have to do is try to win our games to maintain pressure on the leading teams," Mudzingwa said.

Highlanders are third on the table with 35 points from 21 games and trail leaders FC Platinum by eight points.

Bosso are five points behind second-placed Caps United, who beat Mutare City Rovers 4-1 at the weekend to close the gap between them and the platinum miners from five to three points.

FC Platinum were held to a 1-1 draw by Chicken Inn to take their unbeaten run to eight games.

Despite being held by the champions, the platinum miners remain title favourites and how they respond to the draw will be key in their quest to land the championship.

FC Platinum's next encounter is a tricky tie against ZPC Kariba, one of only two teams to have beaten them this season.

The electricity generators were the first team to hand FC Platinum a loss in June when they beat the Zvishavane side 2-1 at Mandava. The other team to have collected maximum points from FC Platinum is Hwange that won 2-1 last month.

ZPC Kariba are fourth with 34 points, nine behind FC Platinum and are also championship dark horses.

Former champions Dynamos, who are fifth on the table with 32 points off 21 games, played to a goalless draw against Ngezi Platinum, while sixth-placed Triangle United were hammered 5-3 by Hwange.

The league's leading scorer with eight goals Gift Mbweti and veteran striker Gilbert Zulu scored braces with seasoned defender Obert Moyo also finding the target for Hwange in the eight-goal thriller.

Meanwhile, Bulawayo City, who felt hard done by referee Thabani Bhamala in their 1-2 loss to Harare City, say they are focused on their next game against Mutare City Rovers.

Bhamala erroneously awarded Harare City a penalty in the dying stages of the game at Rufaro Stadium on Friday after adjudging that Bulawayo City's left-back Brian Chikwenya had used his arm to block a goal-bound shot, when in fact the ball hit his shoulder. Chikwenya was sent off for the ''offence''.

Bulawayo City acting coach Try Ncube said they have themselves to blame for the defeat.

"Obviously we can't change the past, but we had ourselves to blame because we fluffed lots of scoring opportunities. We can't cry much about that penalty, which wasn't a penalty anyway because when that call was made, we should have put the game to bed. We defended too deep and paid dearly, but we've forgotten about that and are now looking forward to our next game," said Ncube.

Chapungu piled more woes on Border Strikers, dispatching the table anchors 3-0 at Ascot Stadium.