Eagles hold Silver to a 1-1 draw in Lilongwe derby: Malawi TNM Super League

 A 76th connector by Blue Eagles Midfielder, Vitumbiko Kumwenda cancelled Silver Strikers lead to earn 1- 1 draw in the TNM Super League midweek encounter played at Civo Stadium before a sizeable crowd.

The hard earned points for Eagles came from what appeared as a slow attack towards the Bankers goal area when Gilbert Chirwa hooked a high ball before Kumwenda knock it back into the empty net beating out placed keeper, Blessings Kameza.

Silver had gave it away just 14 minutes to normal time when they appeared to enjoy most of ball possession but Area 30 Cops had a different approach to earn a point.

The Central Bankers are now 10 points from six games and are on position eight while Eagles have reap frogged Nyasa Big Bullets to position five with 13 points from nine games.

The first opening 15 minutes no team created chances in search for early lead but a minute later Eagle’s Captain Mecium Mhone wasted an opportunity when he blasted over the bar after being put through by Chisomo Chilasa.

Nine minutes into play, Striker Greenwell Harawa put Silver into the lead when he connected home a loose ball after Eagles goalie,  John Soko had parried Mike   Robert’s 25 metre free kick.

Silver continued to pressurised to increase the lead through Binwell Katinji and Harawa by Eagle’s defence of Gregory Nachipo, Osward Maonga, Ackim Kazombo and Steve Chagoma stood firm.

The two teams went to break with Silver narrowly leading 1-0 courtesy of Harawa effort.

Second half saw Silver pulling out injured Timothy Chitedze for Levison Maganizo but this did not help matters as their wonderboy Thuso Paipi played second fiddle in their supply line.

Kumwenda proved to be saviour for the Eagle’s when he connected a back volley into Silver’s empty net in the 76th minute.

The remaining minutes saw the Cops pushing forward to get a late winner through substitute Phillip Masiye and Chirwa.

Although Silver had brought in fresh legs of Mike Tetteh and Victor Limbani for Katinji and Harawa respectively they failed to find the back of the net once more.

” I think Blue Eagles played a very different type of game unlike what we saw them play on Saturday against Civil Sporting. They did not create more scoring opportunities and this affected them greatly,”  a soccer fan, Denzel Mtonda observed after the game.

He said Blue Eagles played more a defensive type of game than their usual attacking football.

A Silver diehard, Chesani Undi blamed Silver’s players  for causal approach in the second half saying they was little push on their side.

He lamented that ” you can not be comfortable with a single goal when you have plenty time left to play and end result is this painful draw. We could have been saying we are within top four by now.”

Blue Eagles have collected two points from two games from their capital city teams Silver and Civil within a space of  five days.