Zesco loss painful – Lupiya

ZESCO United assistant trainer, Alfred Lupiya, has described his teams 2-0 defeat to Green Buffaloes Football club last Sunday at Edwin Imboela Stadium in Lusaka as a painful loss. Lupiya, who took over when head coach George Lwandamina was sent off the bench in the 23rd minute by the referee Derick Kafuli for using vulgar language said that his team created numerous scoring chances because they needed to beat Buffaloes to reclaim top position on the league table. Speaking in a post-match interview at Imboela Stadium, Lupiya noted that there was need for Zesco to win the next encounters to compete for the title. “We got punished for the mistakes we made at the back. These are tight games. Buffaloes are contenders for the league and they utilised their chances. We didn’t play well, “The defeat is painful, we wanted to dislodge them from the summit. We have been champions, we need to defend our title. We need to win our next game at all costs, we can’t afford to lose because it will be bad for us. We must work hard to get those three points, we have messed up these three points but that is football, it wasn’t our day.” Lupiya said. Buffaloes coach Bilton Musonda however said that his charges were under pressure but would continue working hard to achieve their target of snatching the league title. “We are under pressure because everyone wants to be on top but the most important thing is when the league is coming to an end, where are we going to be? I think that is the most important thing that we are working towards,” said Musonda. “We have been top four since 2015, so we are rest assured of finishing in the top four but we should work extra hard so that we come out first, second or third.” Lusaka Dynamos coach, Danny Kabwe, said he was pleased with his team’s performance for having beaten Police sponsored Nkwazi 2-1 to pick maximum points in a week 12 fixture at Imboela Stadium Meanwhile Nkwazi coach Chris Kaunda says the team’s failure to utilize chances cost them maximum points in the 2-1 defeat to Dynamos. Kaunda said that he was not very disappointed despite having lost to Dynamos and would work on his tactical approach going into the next league fixture. “It was a 50/50 situation. Dynamos utilized their chances and we failed to utilize ours. That’s the name of the game. I’m not hurt, if we had utilized our chances, we would be talking about something different,” said Kaunda.