ZESCO United Football Club Team Ya Ziko
ZESCO United returned to the summit of the Zambian game after seeing off Prison Leopards by a single goal in the FAZ/MTN Super League encounter played at the Levy Mwanawasa stadium.
The former champions went into yesterday’s game with high hopes of going on top of the league table by beating Prison Leopards.
It only took the hosts 28’ minutes to find the back of the net through an unlikely source.
ZESCO United defensive midfielder, Donashano Malama latched on John Ching’andu’s parried effort by Leopards goalkeeper, Charles Kalumba to score the only goal of the game.
The former league champions met a different Prison Leopards side to that which faced Indeni Football Club.
Leopards players where oozing with confidence from the first to the final whistle. They attacked with verve, causing panic among the ZESCO United’s defenders.
Damiano Phiri and Landu Miete Liya looked dangerous every time Leopards raided the ZESCO United defense.
Their efforts paid dividends in the 14’minute when Phiri and Liya combined with some brilliant footwork leaving the ZESCO United defenders astounded.
Unfortunately for Leopards, Phiri’s goal was disallowed for an offside. The disallowed goal was a wake call for the hosts that their visitors came to hunt.
Malama’s goal settled nerves for only four minutes before FAZ referee, Audrick Nkole awarded a penalty to Prison Leopards after Otieno was misjudged to have fouled Francis Zulu.
Liya stepped up to take the penalty unfortunately for the Leopards striker Otieno went the correct way stopping the visitors from taking the lead.
Unfortunately, Nkole decided to call for a retake after the ZESCO United shot stopper was judged to have moved from his line before the penalty was taken.
This time around Liya scored from the second time of asking, unfortunately for him the goal could not stand because one of Leopards players crossed the ZESCO United penalty box before the penalty was taken.
The game went to halftime with ZESCO United in control of the proceeding. Prison started the second half looking determined to overturn proceedings.
However, it was ZESCO United who took the game to the visitors. The hosts threatened through John Makwata whose final execution wasn’t too often up to scratch.
The Kenyan International striker came close in the dying minutes of the game by unlocking a powerful shot which Kalumba comfortably saved.
ZESCO United’s victory over Prison Leopards resulted in the former champions going top of the league table for the first time during this campaign. The eight times league champions will clash with Red Arrows on Wednesday in a week 9 fixture slated for Nkoloma stadium.
In his post-match comments, ZESCO United head coach, Numba Mumamba said: “It was a tough game. Prisons came to the party, they were running a lot and showed that there level of endurance was very good. That’s why they managed to play well against an experienced team like ours.
They also created chances which could have been the biggest difference. However, our main aim was to correct the three maximum points and we did just that. Now it’s time to get back into camp to prepare for the next game.”
With games coming thick and fast, the ZESCO United gaffer has adopted a rotational system to give players chance to rest and recover for the upcoming fixtures.
“One thing we need to take into consideration is the age of some of our players. We have played a lot of games in a short space of time which can be quite tough for old players. That is why we are slowly trying to bring in young ones to offer extra support.
What is crucial today is the three points we have managed to pick up. This is a good thing for the team because the league is turning out to be tough from the games played so far,” Mumamba concluded.
Author: Desmond Katongo
