FCB Nyasa Big Bullets Reserves started their ThumbsUp Southern Region Football League last eight campaign with a goalless draw against Ntaja United at the Kamuzu Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
What happened
The meeting of the league’s Group A and Group B winners was expected to be tight, and the two sides were neck to neck right from the start.
With either team unwilling to leave a space behind by maintaining their compactness off the ball, the clash at the top went on for half an hour, with no decent shot on target recorded.
Towards the end of the opening half, the tie started to open up a bit, abandoning its form of a chess match.
Having spent much of the tie shying at goal, we then threatened to establish the lead. Six minutes before the halfway point, Kondwani Tebulo out-paced his marker down the left and sent a low cross behind the penalty spot but crossed the goal mouth, begging to touch home.
We went close to scoring again, but twice, the upright post denied us. First, it was Wongani Kaponya with a tap-in, and then Tebulo saw his long-range effort rattle against the post.
The game would go for the mid-point break goalless but promising everything.
At the restart, Mabvuto Lungu’s side made a triple change hoping for an improved performance in the second half.
Following the changes, a ripple effect was notable, as the visitors began to see much of the ball, though they could be guilty of making less use of it.
Trying to reclaim our better stand in the fight, we then made our first changes, bringing on Oscar Petro and Hadji Steven for Raphick Bahati and Sladge Sanudi.
Control was retaken as the visitors started to get outstretched at the back. Substitute Steven would go on to make inroads down the left with different tricks but could not pick a mate inside the box with his cut-backs.
Similarly, last week’s Blantyre derby hero, Kaponya, managed to beat his marker several times but failed to send the perfect ball into the area.
It was not only at the visitors’ goal that had a lot of activity as on our end, we relied on our goalie, Austin Chirambo, to make some excellent saves to keep it goalless.
Our boys really pushed to break the deadlock in the final minutes, but the visitors looked to play for a draw away from home and did enough to frustrate us up to the final whistle. 0-0, it ended.
What it means
A goalless draw on the opening day of the last eight campaign gives a point to the two sides, who surely will find themselves bottom in the standings when other round one games are played. Regardless of the result, the two sides will remain to be some of the favourites to win the championship in the end.
Chatama post-Ntaja
“It was one of those games whereby we controlled proceedings from the first to the last whistle. It was only in some spaces of the game we lost concentration but we had the lion’s share of the ball. We created more chances, but it’s a barren draw, and that’s what happens in football. We have a long way to go, but we believe we are in the right direction as a team.”
Looking forward
Our youngsters now have three days off before resuming league action. On Monday afternoon, they will host another team from Group A, Ndirande Stars, at the Kamuzu Stadium.
