FCB Nyasa Big Bullets Reserves stretched their dominance over rivals Mighty Wanderers Reserves with a 3-0 triumph in the ThumbsUp Southern Region Football League on Thursday afternoon at Kamuzu Stadium.
It was a Blantyre mini-derby classic that had it all. Scoring his first goal since joining us at the start of the season, Edward Thengo gave us an early lead and won us the opening half.
Off the bench, Francis Malikebu and Misheck Biliati completed the derby’s ultimate mission with wonderful goals.
What happened
The visiting boys in blue were first to be presented with a goal-scoring opportunity very early when Lemani Kasiya sent a searching low cross into the penalty area, fortunately, our goalkeeper, Julius Banda, was equal to the task of parrying it away.
Seven minutes into the game, we responded strongly when the overlapping Thengo put a lovely ball into the box, and Prince Chalera laid it up for Madalitso Safuli, who struck it the first time but well wide.
After spending half an hour without carrying any real threat on the break, coach Enos Chatama made a double change, bringing on Malikebu and Biliati for the young Kondwani Mhone and Madalitso Safuli.
Soon after the changes, we were ahead, and in some fashion when Chalera set up Thengo, who was facing the ‘keeper at the near post and came out smart to smuggle his first-ever Bullets goal with a net-buster. The visiting shot-stopper, Vincent Mdoka, could have done nothing and we were one-nil up.
With the lead, we were fired up and knocked at the visitors’ door even more, but the opening half would come to an end without us doubling the lead.
Looking to extend their lead, our boys came out from the halftime break salivating for their next goal.
On the rebound in the area, Chalera struck in a hurry and saw his effort well blocked. A few minutes later, Malikebu then cheekily beat a defender in the area but went for power to strike straight into the arms of the ‘keeper when he should have placed it far post.
However, Safarao Pompi’s young Nomads could not ride their luck for long as we eventually rendered them with another knockout punch.
In a scintillating fashion, substitute Biliati dribbled past his marker down the right before finishing confidently into the bottom far corner and it was 2-0 at the stroke of an hour.
Putting the tie beyond the visitor’s reach, we got our third with a magnificent team goal a few moments after our second.
With a fine through ball, Chalera released Malikebu who had a lot of chances wasted but this time had all his confidence to round off the keeper before finishing into the empty net to make it 3-0, sparking crazy celebrations.
From thereon, a lot of chances to humiliate the rivals fell abundantly, but our boys fluffed them all to let the Nomads take a second 3-0 battering against our youngsters this season.
What it means
The latest Blantyre min-derby win over their archrivals takes our youngsters to nine points and have moved three steps up to occupy the second position in the standings. Only a point makes the gap between us and the league leaders Ekhaya United, who suffered a 2-0 loss against Red Lions at Mpira Stadium on the same afternoon.
Chatama post Mighty Wanderers Reserves
“One of the best games we have played so far. We dominated possession, we dominated play, and we created so many goal-scoring opportunities. It’s only that we only converted three. All in all, it was a good game; the boys played according to the instructions. The transitions were good, created more, and defensively, we were quite so tremendous.”
Looking ahead
After their indifferent start to the first round of the last eight stage, our boys will look to finish strong when they wrap it up with a match against Nyambadwe United next Thursday at the Kamuzu Stadium.
