Nyasa Big Bullets will be on the road this weekend for TNM Super League action against Silver Strikers at the Bingu National Stadium on Sunday.
Club media spoke to the second assistant coach, Heston Munthali, who took us through the preparations coming from the 1-1 draw against Civil Services United last Sunday, the expectations facing Silver away in the reverse fixture of this campaign, team news and other issues.
Read everything he said below:
On preparations…
We have been playing games week in, week out and it’s not even healthy for the players, but we are trying to manage the players. We started our training on Monday for recovery and we rested them on Tuesday before resuming on Wednesday. We are doing well because they are coping to withstand this fixture congestion, which is something good from our point of view. We will have our final session on Friday before departing to Lilongwe for the match.
On facing Silver Strikers when the opponents are struggling for results…
It’s difficult to face a team which is struggling to get results, but this is something we usually expect because any team facing Bullets comes very hard on us and as a club, we are only focusing on our games, playing and winning as they come. We are facing them this weekend and we will try our level best to win so that we keep our good record in the ongoing season. When we faced them in the first round, they were doing well and were in better form than the current form, but we expect a very difficult match against them.
It will be tough as usual because they have never given us any easy game whenever we play them. We also have a bad record at Bingu National Stadium [until recently when we beat Mighty Mukuru Wanderers in the FDH Bank Cup semifinals], so we know it won’t be an easy match, but we are geared up to turn the tables around and win in Lilongwe. Yes, they haven’t been doing well but this is a different game altogether and there is a need for the players to strive for a good result. We have been knocking sense into the players to emphasize the importance of this match.
On dealing with complacency towards the final matches of the season…
We have youngsters within the team who might feel overwhelmed and sometimes excited especially when playing at Kamuzu Stadium, but we have talked to them to stop thinking about the title and rather concentrate on winning matches because we have reached a stage where they might be thinking it’s over yet we have plenty of games to play for and we hope they will treat this match with utmost importance.
On managing pressure from other title contenders…
We can’t say we have pressure. We are just managing our games as they come. We have played similar games and all we need is to remain focused and keep on winning.
On team news…
On injuries, we will be without Yankho Singo, who is still recovering from his ankle injury and we also have Gomezgani Chirwa who is a doubt for this match, but our doctors are still assessing him to see if he will be part of the travelling squad. However, we will be welcoming back John Lanjesi, Ernest Petro and Alick Lungu who were not part of last week’s game due to injuries and the rest of the players are fit for this encounter.
