Kalisto Pasuwa declares that FCB Nyasa Big Bullets will not look down or lose focus, saying a defeat is part of the game.
He said this after seeing the TNM Super League defending champions conceded in the 90th minute through Chinsinsi Maonga’s strike to lose 0-1 against Silver Strikers at Kamuzu Stadium on Sunday.
The People’s Team needed to win Sunday’s encounter to reduce the gap against the league leaders, a result which would have pushed us to third position from fifth.
Reacting to the loss, the Zimbabwean said: “We must return to the dressing room and see the way forward. Remember, we still have 21 more games to play and we can’t say we have lost this one and then we look down. We need to make the players raise their heads so we can return to winning ways”.
Just as last week against Moyale Barracks away in Mzuzu, where we failed to convert chances into goals, Bullets were the better team throughout the game at Kamuzu Stadium where we were denied by George Chikooka’s heroic saves.
Maonga’s goal on Sunday ended our three-year unbeaten home run and the visitors recorded their first win against us in Blantyre in eight years.
“Football can be cruel at times. We had chances that we could have buried unfortunately, we couldn’t and were punished in the dying minutes. It’s the number of chances you take for one to win the game and for us to win, it was a matter of putting the ball into the net and we couldn’t. The opposition got the only chance and we were punished.
The head coach played down assertions that his men were unsettled by some of the “questionable” decisions from referee Gift Chicco.
“At this level, the boys should be mentally strong. We need to play to win no matter what the referee is doing. We must not concentrate on what the referee is doing and yes, we lost concentration but again as football, we are playing one ball and we need to concentrate on the ball that we are playing for us to win,” commented Pasuwa.
On his team’s chances of retaining the championship, our coach replied: “I wouldn’t make the players panic because if I do this, everyone in the house will panic. We need to go back and encourage each other, see the way forward, and then correct the mistakes.”
Tackling a question on whether his team is struggling because of last season’s success, the 2023 quadruple-winning coach said injuries have also contributed to the current situation.
“Remember we played more games last year and we had several players on the injury list and some of them are still injured, plus fresh injuries that we have suffered this year and as a result we are forced to make changes to every game. We can’t have the combinations we want because it’s a new team altogether and we are trying to come up with something strong. [Today] we have lost, [we move] on to the next one.”
