Silver crowned Malawi champions, ‘Nyerere’ spoil celebrations: TNM Super League
Unwelcome visitors Mighty ‘Nyerere’ Wanderers on Sunday, February 24, 2013 gate-crashed into party at Civo Stadium and spoiled Silver Strikers’ championship celebrations after beating the newly crowned TNM Super League champions 1-0 in a thrilling encounter played before a big crowd.
Having lost 2-1 against Mafco at Chitowe Stadium the previous day, Wanderers had no choice but to get the points at Civo, hoping their bitter rivals Big Bullets would see off Red Lions, who could have grabbed the fourth place with victory against the ‘People’s team’ at Kamuzu Stadium.
Silver, on the other hand did not want to spoil the mood in their camp following last week’s 1-0 victory over Kamuzu Barracks that almost secured the title for them.
The first half ended goal-less but the hosts had the best chance in the opening 45 minutes after attacking midfielder Harvey Nkacha had smashed the cross-bar with a hard shot following a fumble by Wanderers’ goalkeeper Richard Chipuwa.
Came the second half, Wanderers upped the tempo and were rewarded in the 75th minute, when substitute Mike Kaziputa connected the ball home from close range after Silver’s goalkeeper Charles Swini had failed to deal with Victor Mpinganjira’s dangerous cross.
The bankers’ efforts for an equalizer were thwarted by Wanderers’ three-man defence marshaled by captain Foster Namwera, who was eventually voted man-of-the-match.
Wanderers’ team manager Chiyembekezo Zidana expressed happiness that his side had bagged full points to finish on fourth position but had no kind words for Lilongwe based referee Jones Makuwira, who was
clearly behind the bankers more especially in the dying moments.
“It was a good game and we could have finished the game in the first round had the officiation been fair,” said Zidana.
His counterpart Franco Ndawa, who was in jovial mood despite the loss said he would have loved to see his team winning the game but accepted things did not go the way they planned.
“We wanted to win this match but things just didn’t go the way we planned. But I’m not worried
because we are still champions,” said Ndawa, formerly of Wanderers.
With Bullets only managing a 3-0 win over Red Lions, which was seven goals short of the target, Silver were crowned champions and presented with the glittering trophy by Youth and Sports Minister Enock Chihana.
For their win, Silver take home the K9 million (about $25 000) winners’ purse while Bullets, for all their sweat and effort, will get K5 million (about $13 888) as runners-up.
