FCB Nyasa Big Bullets Reserves made it three wins out of three following a sounding 3-0 win over Nyambadwe United in the ThumbsUp Southern Region Football League.
The opening half closed with the two sides unseparated by a goalless scoreline. Prince Chalera broke the deadlock after the break and goals from Madalitso Safuli and Wongani Kaponya completed the victory.
What happened
Our reserves made a lively start to what was their last match of the first round of the last eight of the competition, camping in the visitors’ half.
Five minutes from the first whistle, we came near to scoring when Chalera’s back-heel effort from the box hit the post.
Having started with an open flow, the tie then turned cagey though we continued to be more eager to force the opener.
Failing to match our rising momentum, the visitors were forced to make a double first-half change at the stroke of half an hour.
Since the changes, a significant improvement was detected in the visitors from Nyambadwe Township, who nearly grabbed a lead from a corner kick but were denied by the upright.
While we endured a spell needing to deal with pressure, a critical moment to define the tie arrived towards the end of the opening half.
Trying to stop our sweeping counterattack, Richard Phiri brought down Kaponya, who was racing into the area and was left only with the goalkeeper to beat.
Having already been shown a yellow card, Phiri was given the second one to be sent off just before the halftime whistle.
Returning for the showdown with a man down, the visitors never looked like dropping into a low block but instead pushed the game up. Off the ball, they efficiently maintained their shape to prevent us from exploiting the wide flanks using our pacey defenders.
Nonetheless, the visitors’ resilience could not carry on forever as they finally let the gate open in the 80th minute.
Oscar Petro, who was a marvel to watch on the day, released Kaponya with a lovely lofted ball down the left and the winger was on full speed to beat his marker before sending a low cross which Chalera turned into the net at the near post to make 1-0.
With the lead, we were now on fire as three minutes later we were two-nil up. From the bench, Limbani Kutambe stormed into the area from the right flank and sent a searching cross into the penalty box. Chalera connected it well but the victors made a block once before another substitute Madalitso Safuli finished emphatically into the far bottom left corner, 2-0.
The visitors clearly had lost their legs and our boys were now in the mood to punish them. Three minutes after our second we scored another similar goal to seal the victory. Substitute Hadji Steven outpaced his marker down the right and sent a beautiful cross at the far post and Kaponya had the simplest of touches to tap in.
There could be more on the scoresheet for us but Chalera twice squandered glorious opportunities to save the Nyambadwe side from humiliation.
What it means
The result takes our boys, who were led by Henry Kabichi on Thursday afternoon in the absence of Enos Chatama, to 12 points after seven games.
In the standings, the win moves us to third position as we have wrapped up the first round of the last eight of this competition.
Kabichi post Nyambadwe
“We have done better; we have collected three points. We did not start the game the way we could have liked. We try to work on the areas of luck. We want to push and move to better positions. These are youngsters who are still learning and we will continue to encourage them because improving them is our priority.”
Looking forward
Having finished the first round of this league stage, our reserves will have a one-week break before they continue the push to reclaim the championship title after missing out on it last year.
