Our head coach provided his reaction following the 1-1 stalemate in the Blantyre derby at Kamuzu Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Kalisto Pasuwa admitted that Bullets struggled to cope with Mighty Mukuru Wanderers’ intensity in the first half.
The People’s Team came from behind four minutes after the break through Patrick Mwaungulu to salvage a point after Isaac Kaliati’s 20th-minute strike for the visitors.
“It is one of those [games] where we struggled to contain their [Wanderers’] pace in the first half, we were second on the ball most of the times and we didn’t do well in terms of attack,” Pasuwa provided his analysis.
“But in the second half, we came with full force and attacked them to get our goal. It was a swift response from the boys after performing poorly in the opening half.”
On playing second fiddle to our rivals, the Zimbabwean said there was nothing like pressure on his boys, observing that Bullets were facing a new Wanderers with several new players and a new technical panel headed by Nsanzurwimo Ramadhan following the departure of Mark Harrison at the end of last season.
Explained the 2023 Coach of the Season: “Nothing like playing under pressure, but remember these are new teams where you see how they play and then counter-attack them and that’s what we did in the second half to find our goal.”
Pasuwa was impressed to see Bullets’ fighting spirit in the second half while admitting that the defending champions still have a lot of work to do [with the arrival of new faces in the team that won a quadruple last term.
“We played well, but you could see that we missed some chances and we also allowed Wanderers to pounce on us when we had already raised our tempo. We still have a lot of work to do, especially on how to keep possession and track back when under siege, but I liked the fighting spirit in the boys that made us level the scoreline and walk away with a point.”
Bullets are fourth in the standings with nine points from five games and will this week be travelling to Dwangwa to face Mafco at Chitowe Stadium on Saturday.
