Kalisto Pasuwa believes FCB Nyasa Big Bullets should have fought harder to gain something as the TNM Super League defending champions suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Bangwe All Stars at Kamuzu Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
Bullets were left stunned by Clever Chikwata’s 71st-minute strike that earned the relegation-threatened Bangwe all three points in their quest for survival, registering their famous first victory against The People’s Team in all competitions.
In his post-match presser, the Zimbabwean admitted that his charges were below par throughout the afternoon when we succumbed to our third defeat of this league campaign, and a second at home.
“It’s a match that we didn’t do well in terms of attack, especially in the final third, and if you could see, they caught us on the counter to score their goal. We didn’t do much to deserve something out of the game.
“We need to sit down with the boys to see how best we can solve this because all the goals we are conceding always originate from counter-attacks. We attack, then they win the ball and launch their attack against our defence to score the goal, and that’s exactly what they did today.
“But once again, I have been talking about it to say these are the teams fighting for safety, and when they meet Bullets, they change their attitude. You saw the way they approached the game was different; hence, they grabbed the three points,” explained Pasuwa.
The defending champions, who only had four shots at goal in the entire match, lacked the finishing composure in the final third, something which the head coach believes is due to a lack of patience in front of the goal.
“We need to be very patient enough in front of goals. You saw we were pressing with nine players behind the ball but we never caused any mayhem. We need movement inside the penalty box and composure when we get through the offensive spaces to get a goal, but you could see every time we got a chance, we were in a hurry then at the end of the day we missed them.
“We need to correct ourselves where we are making mistakes and I have been talking of being scored on the counter-attack and also, the same way, we need to create chances and score from them to start winning these league matches,” the 2023 Coach of the Year told journalists.
On the title race, which suffered a massive setback following Thursday’s loss, with Bullets sitting in tenth position with 21 points behind league leaders Silver Strikers, the tactician admitted it’s a cause for concern but assured The People’s Team will keep hunting for points, with 13 games remaining for us to finish the campaign.
“We will keep on fighting. Remember, we still have more games to play for. This one is gone. We have lost points, and as you can see this season, we have lost three games, which is not good enough for a team like ours, but again, if we take it for granted by saying we are Bullets, we will end up losing everything,” he responded.
After the midweek defeat, Bullets will switch focus to another TNM Super League game against Chitipa United at Kamuzu Stadium on Sunday, before facing Creck Sporting Club on Wednesday at the same venue.
