‘Derby came too soon’

HIGHLANDERS’ coach Madinda Ndlovu believes today’s derby against Bulawayo City came too soon, as he feels both sides haven’t had enough time to prepare for a game of this magnitude, while his City counterpart Amini Soma-Phiri said Bosso’s 12th man will be key to the final outcome.

The two coaches, both sons of the Bulawayo giants, face off this afternoon against the backdrop of dropped points in their last outings. Soma-Phiri’s Bulawayo City were hammered 0-4 by runaway leaders Ngezi Platinum Stars at Baobab Stadium in Mhondoro, while Ndlovu’s Bosso drew 0-0 at home with Caps United.

Highlanders have gone for three consecutive games without a win, managing just a single goal in the process and Ndlovu said today’s encounter will not present them with an easy afternoon as City had a good technical team.

“The derby came too soon. I don’t think both teams had enough time to prepare well, especially looking at the fact that it’s a derby. We will live up to our last performance; rely much on that as we go into this game. Let me say that we are playing a team which is hungry for results; a team that can do anything to get that result. It’s a team that has a new coach, ambitious for that matter, a son of Highlanders who is assisted by another equally good young man. Amini is a very good coach with a very intelligent young man assisting him so we will be very careful in how we approach the game. We will approach it with a lot of caution and make sure we catch them where we can, but it won’t be easy,” said Ndlovu yesterday.

Speaking at an earlier media briefing at his Tower Block offices, Soma-Phiri said they have to be careful about how they tread, as Highlanders are most certainly going to be backed by a huge crowd.

“All we have to do to be careful about it. The team that we are playing against has a muscle behind them, meaning they have got the 12th person, but we are not afraid of that because of the preparations. If the boys do what they have been told by the technical department, I don’t see any problems,” said Soma-Phiri.

Highlanders are likely to welcome back Bukhosi Ncube, who has been out through injury.