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Eddie Chikamhi, Harare Bureau
Harare City 1- 0 Dynamos
BELEAUGERED giants, Dynamos, were yesterday left occupying the last spot of safety in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League table after succumbing to a narrow defeat to Harare City at Rufaro yesterday.

City forward Ishmael Wadi capped a particularly bad week for the Glamour Boys when he beat goalkeeper Simba Chinani with a fine grounder just eight minutes on the board.

Wadi, who barely lasted 15 minutes before he limped off injured, still made his cameo count despite having fluffed an early opportunity when he glided over a couple of tackles and stormed into the box, only to shoot weakly at the badly exposed goalkeeper.

Yet DeMbare could not find a response to the damage he had caused. The defeat meant Dynamos have not won a match in their last three outings and are now back in the relegation matrix.

Their fortunes have taken a serious knock with just eight games left before the end of the season.

DeMbare were leapfrogged by Yadah and Chapungu at the weekend and are now just two points above the drop zone.

Pressure has been mounting on coach Lloyd Mutasa and his charges to find a panacea to the team’s woes on the pitch but their miserable script continued yesterday with another barren 90 minutes of football.

DeMbare have not managed to score a goal in their last three outings. However, they had some decent opportunities yesterday with Denver Mukamba rattling the upright while Quality Kangadze made several attempts.

Mutasa said he was increasingly getting worried by the team’s impotence in front of goal, which has been their major weakness this season.

“It’s a bit worrisome. You play three games and you don’t score a goal and obviously it becomes clear for everybody to see that our problem is the failure to put the ball past the goal line.

“But the creativity is there. We are getting into the scoring positions but we are just failing with the last touch,” said Mutasa.

DeMbare started without their new signing Kingston Nkhata, skipper Ocean Mushure and defender Peace Makaha who was ruled out through suspension.

Harare City controlled play in the first half with Moses Muchenje, Malvin Gaki and Tellmore Pio winning most of the tussles in the midfield.

It was always going to be a tall order for Dynamos to come back after Wadi had swung the match in the Sunshine Boys’ favour with his early strike.

Mukamba and Kangadze came close with a couple of chances for DeMbare but the goal was elusive.

Frustrated DeMbare fans disrupted the match towards half time when they rained missiles on the pitch protesting referee Norman Matemera’s decision to wave play on following what appeared a handball near City’s goal.

Harare City goalkeeper, Ryan Harrison, almost gifted DeMbare with a goal when he fumbled Blessing Moyo’s freekick on the hour mark before Mukamba was denied by the underside of the cross bar from another set-piece 10 minutes later.

Harrison was called to make a crucial save with five minutes remaining to thwart substitute Bret Amidu’s header from the back post.

“When you look at the result, it’s not good enough but you look at the second half performance and the effort these youngsters are putting in, the zeal and determination of wanting to break the duck is there and we can only but live on hope,” said Mutasa.

But Harare City could have doubled their score deep in added time when William Manondo broke free in a counter attack. Phamakani Dube, who has been one of the outstanding players at DeMbare of late, made a timely interception.

Still Harare City managed to complete a double over the giants and have now hit their target of amassing 40 points. Mark Harrison’s men are in course for a top eight finish and the Briton is excited.

He was also sympathetic to his struggling counterpart, Mutasa, whose team slumped to a 10th defeat this season.

“Obviously after the goal, the problem is if you are playing a team that has its back against the wall and in desperate need of a point, we knew they were always going to give us a hard time.

“We knew that they would never let go easily, they would chase everything, they would chase down and we had to be prepared for that battle.

“Fortunately we got that goal at the right time, it gave us something to hold on to. They pressed hard. To be honest, I don’t think this season there have been too many teams who pressed us down like that.

“I said to the coach (Mutasa) after the game if their boys play like that every week they will get the points they need to stay in the league. They should continue with that fighting spirit,” said Harrison.

Teams
Harare City: R Harrison, H Chapusha, T Chimwemwe, M Diro, B Chayambuka, M Muchenje, L Muyambo, T Pio (T Samanja, 87th min), M Gaki (D Chimwemwe, 77th min), K Musharu, I Wadi (W Manondo, 16th min).

Dynamos: S Chinani, G Mukambi, J Tigere, P Dube, M. Machazane, B Moyo, G Saunyama (K Dhemere, 55th min), C Kapupurika (T Macheke, 69th min), Q Kangadze, D Mukamba, K Kumwala (B Amidu, 53rd min)