FCB Nyasa Big Bullets Reserves emerged 4-0 winners over Mighty Tigers Reserves at the Mpira Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
It was Enos Chatama boys’ second fixture in the 2024 ThumbsUp Southern Region Football League campaign.
Chifundo Ngochera opened the scoring in the first half before Francis Malikebu, Wongani Kaponya and Gift Lamowa got themselves on the score sheet to seal the win in the second half.
The result now puts the young Maule on four points from two games.
What happened
With memories of last season’s home defeat to Wednesday’s opponents fresh, our lads started brightly, showing no reservations with the ball away from home.
We were ahead 20 minutes into the tie through Ngochera, who produced a calm finish after being beautifully set by Malikebu in the area.
A few moments later the visitors almost helped Tigers level things up when they carelessly lost possession in the build-up. But our goalkeeper, Julius Banda, who was making his league debut for the young Bullets, was well-positioned to make a save.
Responding to that let-off we pushed up the pitch and were almost two-nil up when Macray Chiwaya forced a fine save from the Tigers goalie, Saidi Mkwezalanba, with his curler effort.
Like in our last outing, we were proving to be wasteful again when Prince Chalera squandered another glorious chance after Kaponya laid him a spot-on cut-back.
It could have been devastating, but somehow the hosts finished the opening half only 1-0 down.
Come the second half, our boys continued their insane chance-creation and eventually, they were awarded a second goal 10 minutes after the restart.
This time Malikebu turned from provider to scorer with a sublime free-kick he struck from the edge of the box.
In the 69th minute, Kaponya made it three for us on the day, pouncing on a poor clearance by the home side’s defence with a one-time volley.
With less than 15 minutes to go, Chatama made a triple substitution when he introduced Kondwani Mhone, Lamowa and Edward Thengo for Ngochera, Malikebu and Chalera.
The changes went on to seal victory for Chatama as substitute Lamowa got himself on the score sheet when he connected well to a Raphick Bahati in-swinging delivery from the left-hand side.
A fixture that ended 4-1 at the same venue last season, finished 4-0 in this new campaign in favour of young lads again.
Chatama post Tigers
“We controlled the game from the first to the 90th minute. We created so many chances, we could have scored 10 or 15. Not good for the team, we have scored four. All the games we have played so far, we are creating so many chances but we are failing to bury them. We need to iron that out.”
What Next
Before they return to league action, our reserves will take a trip to Mchinji where they are set to participate in the launch ceremony of a community football stadium in the central-region district on Saturday.
