Kalisto Pasuwa admits Chitipa United made life very difficult for us as we suffered our first defeat of the season in the TNM Super League at Karonga Stadium on Saturday.
Bullets, going into the tie with a seven-game unbeaten run in the current season, saw their perfect start halted by the rookies who collected all the points through an own goal by Collins Okumu in the second half.
Reacting to the result, Pasuwa said he was meeting a highly motivated opposition that was looking to get all the points over the league leaders after they defeated Mighty Mukuru Wanderers in their previous fixture.
“We played a team which was looking for every ball that was thrown on the ground. We couldn’t come to the party, and you could see how our opponents performed throughout the match, with zeal to win every ball and take us head-on, hence the defeat. They made life very difficult for us this afternoon,” commented our head coach.
On the defeat, the first ever against Chitipa in all our meetings in all competitions, Pasuwa said that’s how football is.
“That’s how football is all about. At times, you also lose games, and you see the approach that we took towards the opposition. We can also say Chitipa United planned well, and they did well in terms of how they approached us.”
The tactician was quick to downplay the impact of the defeat on the title defence, saying this was game number 8 and that he will only talk about the championship after 30 games.
“Remember we play 30 games and this is game number 8 and it’s gone. We can’t give up the race because of one game, [we have] plenty of games coming and we will bounce back from this blip. We will go home, assess what went wrong and rectify all the mistakes we made in this match.”
The defeat means Bullets are still topping the standings with 17 points, but that will depend on the result between Kamuzu Barracks and Silver Strikers on Sunday afternoon.
The Bankers are second on the log table with 15 points from seven games.
Up next for Pasuwa’s charges is a home game against Ekwendeni Hammers on Saturday.
