The off-season lay-off is over for FCB Nyasa Bullets Reserves as they returned to the training pitch on Monday at the Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.
Our lads last played five weeks ago when they defeated TNM Super League-bound Bangwe All Stars 2-0 in the 2022 ThumbsUp Southern Region Football League final to defend a quadruple.
“It’s nice to be back on the football pitch after quite some time on a holiday,” in a passionate mood, our reserves head coach Enos Chatama told club media the feeling of coming back from the break.
Three-quarters of those who attended the session on the first day of pre-season training were new players, as Crispin Mapemba, Rahaman John, Gift Jossam, Joel Ngwira and Aaron Chilipa were the only players who were in last season’s squad.
With most players in the current squad expected to return in subsequent days, Chatama promised to bake a better team in the coming campaign.
“We will build a good team. I believe last year we had a good team but we lacked depth. We will add up a few numbers in the squad so that we have a lot of competition in all departments. Hopefully this year we will build one of the strongest teams ever.”
Last year Chatama graduated centre-back Happy Mphepo and midfielder Gift Jossam from our youth side and the mentor is likely to bring in a few of Autry Kalulu’s kids ahead of the new season.
Departures are expected to happen to make room for new blood in the squad as Chatama promises to improve the depth of the team.
“I think one, two, three players are going to leave and maybe they can be released permanently but almost the whole team is here,” he shared.
Should there be no introduction of a new competition, our reserves, who finished runners-up in the 2022 FDH Bank Cup are set to have the familiar task of defending a quadruple, something they unbelievably achieved last year.
