Nyasa Big Bullets head coach Kalisto Pasuwa says Saturday’s 2-1 away win over Civil Sporting Club was a perfect result as the People’s Team opened up a five-point lead at the summit of the TNM Super League table.
Bullets took a lead in the 11th minute through Mike Mkwate, but Muhammad Sulumba equalized three minutes later before a 77th minute winner from Zicco Mkanda.
It was The People’s Team’s second victory away in Lilongwe this season out of four games, dropping five points and collecting seven in the process; a draw against MAFCO, a loss at the hands of Silver Strikers and a win at Blue Eagles.
Pasuwa said it was a tough ride for the defending champions to collect the much-needed full points against the Civil Servants.
“Definitely it was a tough ride. I even said it before that we are meeting a side that is good in terms of playing football, a good fighting spirit from the opposition, but I am happy my players fought with everything in order for us to get three points,” he told journalists at the end of the match.
“You could see the way they were fighting, including the youngsters whom we are introducing at a big stage, who also did a very good job for us to win today,” he added.
However, the tactician was not pleased with his side’s play after taking an early lead, saying for the team to maintain their position, it is very important for the players to keep the ball away from opposition whenever leading.
“That’s one area which I want to work on. Whenever we are leading, we need to keep away the ball from the opposition to maintain the lead. We need to keep the ball to ourselves, but at times we drop and we give the room to the opposition to play and they will end up coming to us, creating spaces, so we need to work on this going forward,” stated the head coach.
On the performance of the substitutes he introduced in the final half, Pasuwa said:
“They added value to the team especially towards the end of the match and we scored through Zicco who also just came in. I am very happy with their performance and this tells you that any player can be called at any time to play and give us results the way it has happened this afternoon.”
The win took Bullets’ tally to 45 points, five ahead of the second-placed Silver Strikers, who stumbled 1-0 against Chitipa United at Karonga Stadium, before their second game in the North at the same venue against Karonga United on Sunday afternoon.
