Bullets shoot down Harare City

Cranborne Bullets… (0) 2 Harare City…............. (1)

RESURGENT Cranborne Bullets continued to claw their way from the relegation zone when they rallied from behind to overcome visiting Harare City in a Castle Lager Premiership Soccer League encounter at Vengere Stadium yesterday.

The Harare soldiers, who have had a slow start to life in the top-flight, are fighting to avoid a quick return to Division One.

They found themselves behind at the break following Timothy January’s 29th-minute strike for Harare City.

But Cranborne Bullets fought back through a quick-fire brace by Kelvin Chiripawako, who found the target in the 49th and 52nd minutes.

The match started at a very slow pace, with both sides taking a cautious approach.

Cranborne Bullets were the first to create a real scoring chance in the 14th minute when Tadiwa Chibunyu’s shot from outside the box hit the upright post.

City goalkeeper Tawanda Dendera was called into action again four minutes later when he stopped a shot from lanky defensive midfielder Tapiwa Charakupa.

But the highlight of the day was to come in the 29th minute when January, who was just outside the centre circle, released a spectacular shot that beat a diving Bullets goalkeeper Herbert Rusawo.

The soldiers almost hit back but Jarrison Selemani’s header off a Brian Muza cross went over. In the second half, the hosts turned on the pressure and were duly rewarded when they equalised through a Chiripawako header.

Crowd favourite Selemani went on a solo run on the left flank three minutes later, beating three markers before releasing a through-pass to Chiripawako, who shot past an advancing Dendera. The two players, however, clashed in the process and Dendera had to be substituted after coming worse off.

Although City tried to come back, Bullets were resolute in defence, restricting their opponents to operate outside the 18-area.

While happy to win at home, Bullets coach Nesbert Saruchera noted the need to replicate the same form on the road.

“We did very well especially in the second half. We managed to turn the result. We are doing so well at home and we need to do the same on away games.

“We have a lot of youngsters in the team who are still learning the ropes,” said Saruchera.

His City counterpart Taurai Mangwiro felt players paid for their lapse in concentration.