Following the end of the international break this week, our first team returns to competitive action with two games scheduled for Wednesday and Saturday.
The reserves and the youth team will also be in action in their respective competitions but there will still be no involvement for our women’s team as they continue fine-tuning ahead of their FAM Women’s Football Southern Region League kick-off.
Let’s look at what’s coming ahead at FCB Nyasa Big Bullets this week…
First Team
This will be the busiest week for the main team as they will play two games within three days, playing at home and away.
Straight from the 3-2 loss away to Silver Strikers in the Castel Challenge Cup ceremonial match on Saturday, Kalisto Pasuwa’s men return to Kamuzu Stadium for a midweek fixture against Ndirande Stars in the round-of-32 of the FDH Bank Cup.
The People’s Team will be looking to start their cup defence on a high to send a statement of intent to the rest of the would-be contenders to one of the prestigious national cup competitions in the land.
Bullets will then regroup on Thursday before travelling to Lilongwe for a league tie against Kamuzu Barracks at Civo Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
This will be our fourth trip to Lilongwe in the league, having visited Silver, Extreme FC and Civil Service United.
Pasuwa’s charges will be looking for a second away win in Lilongwe after playing out to 1-all draws against Silver and Civil, and a narrow 1-0 victory over Extreme FC.
Bullets will also go for the kill to avoid another setback playing away from home after suffering the first defeat of the season with a 1-0 loss to Chitipa United in Karonga a fortnight ago.
The defending champions are second on the log table with 20 points, a point below leaders Silver Strikers, who have 21 points from the same nine games.
Reserves
Enos Chatama’s boys are now top of Group B with 15 points following their impressive 4-1 win over Tigers Reserves on Sunday.
Now, the youngsters will switch their focus to an away fixture against Mangochi United on Saturday.
The defending champions are slowly getting back to their level best following their disappointing goalless draw against Changalume Barracks last week.
However, they will travel to Mangochi with a two-point lead over the second-placed FOMO FC, who lost 3-1 to Mighty Ekhaya Wanderers Reserves over the weekend.
Youth
Our youth team started their FCB Under-19 Cup campaign with a bang after they hammered Nyambadwe United 6-0 in their opening match on Sunday to top Group A.
They will now face CC Stars this weekend as they continue searching for more wins and possibly win the trophy at the end of the season.
Autry Kalulu’s lads ended their trophy drought in May when defeated rivals Wanderers 1-0 in the inaugural Africa Herbal Mix U-19 Cup. Still, they haven’t made any progress in the FCB Under-19 Cup which is the only trophy missing for the youth team.
The National Youth Football Committee will announce the venue for the match in due course.
Women
Maggie Chombo’s side continues fine-tuning ahead of their new season, which will kick off either at the end of this month or early July, with the regional playoffs now concluded.
Expectations
The trip to Lilongwe presents yet another ultimate test for the first team, which had registered more wins away from home at this stage last year.
But in the current season, the defending champions have only registered two wins out of five games away from home, beating Bangwe All Stars and Extreme FC, drawing against Silver, Civil and registering the first league defeat to Chitipa United a fortnight ago.
Pasuwa’s charges will go into Saturday’s fixture to get all the points against a side which has always been a thorn in the flesh to the Blantyre-based giants.
