Our reserves recorded their first back-to-back wins in the new ThumbsUp Southern Region Football League campaign following a 2-0 victory over Ntopwa at Kamuzu Stadium on Saturday.
Scoring his first-ever goal for Bullets, defender Mussah Bwanali was the first to get on the score sheet in the first half. With a sumptuous finish our last season’s second top-goal-scorer, Gift Lamowa got our second.
The third Blantyre derby win for Chatama’s boys leaves them with 11 points from five matches in this new campaign.
Match Highlights
Right from the start the young Maule showed a great desire to dictate the game, seeing more of the ball and being able to create four chances in the first quarter of an hour which they fluffed.
Meetings of the two clubs have been an intense fixture in recent years, Ntopwa’s claim for a spell of their own after 20 minutes of the game made a good reminder of that.
Snatching dominance from the hosts on the day, Bullets Reserves won a set piece up the pitch and made it count to get in front seven minutes before the half-time break.
A beautiful delivery from Wongani Kaponya was turned into the net by Bwanali who over-jumped everyone in the box to guide the ball with his head.
With that goal, our boys grew in confidence and easily won the first half 1-0.
Just nine minutes into the second half, the youngsters in red and white doubled the lead with a well-worked team move completed by a clever finish from Lamowa inside the area.
It was proving to be a terrible lunchtime for Isaac Jomo and his Ntopwa as they went down to 10 men just seven minutes after conceding the second goal.
Already on a yellow card, Ntopwa captain Innocent Milanzie tripped Sladge Sanudi who was racing into a one-versus-one situation and the referee had to send him out with a second yellow card.
With a lot of time left on the clock, it looked like goals were about to rain but the hosts had to ride their luck as Bullets Reserves went on to create numerous chances but could not expand their lead until full-time.
In the previous campaign, young Maule drew with Ntopwa home and away but on Saturday, 0-2 it finished in their favour.
Coach Enos Chatama post Ntopwa win
“Today we played better in all departments. We had a very good game plan whereby we closed Ntopwa, they had no chance, no shot on goal for the entire half and our tactics worked. We only need to improve our technical part of the game; some guys are not really up to the standards [yet]. We will improve them as time goes.”
Looking ahead
League action follows up next weekend for young Maule who will now be looking to displace Ntaja Rangers from the top of Group B table.
