Wanderers beat Silver to win Malawi Standard Bank Cup-Full report
Silver Strikers had the advantage of a ‘home’ tie for the K20 million Standard Bank Cup final but Mighty Wanderers overcame them to win the cup in a thriller on Saturday, October 06, 2012.
Nyerere zaphwanya banki, nyerere zaphwanya banki was the tune from Mighty Wanderers fans as the Nomads defeated cup favourites Silver Strikers 2-0 in the grand finale in Lilongwe.
The Bankers stepped onto the turf as hot favourites considering their recent devastating form and the fact that they were playing the final at their own back-yard.
But it was a different altogether on the field of play as the Nomads displayed their best performance of the season to steal the show from the hosts.
The bankers would have gone ahead on 34 minutes, when Zomba based referee Denis Ngulube awarded them a soft penalty after defender Francis Mlimbika had handled in a ball-to-hand situation.
But goalkeeper Richard Chipuwa stood to the occasion by saving Mustafa Salimu’s spot kick.
They were to pay for the penalty miss six minutes later when Victor Mpinganjira, son to assistant coach Albert Mpinganjira squeezed in the first goal after a picking a rebound from a Joseph Kamwendo attempt, whose earlier free kick had been blocked by a Silver defender.
Both teams made changes in the second half but it was the Nomads double substitution of Gerald Phiri Junior and Victor Mpinganjira, who were replaced by veterans Moses Chavula and Allan Kamanga that paid dividends.
After staying on the field for just a few minutes, Chavula headed in the second for the Nomads from a cross by substitute Cuthbert Sinetre.
Goalkeeper Amadu Ali could have easily saved the ball but he unbelievably failed to tame the harmless ball, which went in between his legs into the net.
Post-match comments
Silver’s coach Franco Ndawa, formerly of Wanderers was speechless after the game only saying “that’s how football goes,” when interviewed by the media.
His counterpart Felix Fosco congratulated his boys for playing to instructions.
“We told our boys to close down the opponents and not give them any room to play around with the ball and they did just that,” said Fosco.
For winning the cup, the Nomads were presented with a glittering trophy and a K7 Million cheque from Standard Bank while Silver got K3 million.
The trophy was brought to the stadium by Para-troopers, who were dropped high up in the sky by a military plane.
