Bankers stun defending champs

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Bankers stun defending champs

Silver strikers FC comfortably defeated standard bank cup holders and capital city bitter rivals blue eagles 3-1 on Saturday in a thrilling match at silver stadium.

The victory edge the TNM  super league defending champions towards the comfort zone going into the second leg of the match which will be played at Nankhaka stadium next week, and it also proved to be a warm welcome for new coach Franco Ndawa.

Silver strikers had a sharper start than their opponents and dominated much of the early proceedings. Silver could have gone in front early in the game on  5^th minute when a Mustafa Salim’s long throw was misjudged by eagles defenders, the ball failed kindly for jester Mlima only for the attackers  attempt to lack vigor.

Blue eagles looked as lost men in the island as they could fail to get hold of possession, but that did not prevent them creating chances, Eagles’s first chance of the game came on 20^th minute when charles Ngosi latched onto a through ball and unleashed a thunderbolt which went inches wide.

Mlima fluffed yet another golden opportunity of the first half, this time on 28^th minute when a well crafted move by Rodrick Gonani and Dave Moya saw the latter crossing a decent ball in the box which beat the eagle’s defense and found Mlima on the edge of the box only for him to take his shot of target.

On the half hour mark, blue eagles could have broken the deadlock when innocent Ngwira’s teasing cross was met by Charles Ngosi who saw his header missing by a whisker.

On 45^th minute Jester Mlima paid off for his early misses when he set up the opening goal. Mlima’s well weighed free kick found frank Banda who put silver in the acsendacy.1-0.

In the second half silver, continued from where they left from in the first half as they doubled their lead in the 50^th minute when Harvey Mkacha headed jester Mlima’s cross.2-0

In a bid to add more firepower silver brought on Ndaziona Chatsalila for Ndaziona Chilemba while blue eagles took off innocent Ngwira and brought on Ben Hojan in attempts to reduce the deficit.

 Silver could have stretched their lead in the 68^th minute when Harvey Mkacha’s cross was headed wide by Dave Moya.

Silver was forced to make a change when frank Banda suffered an injury after being badly challenged with less than 10 minutes of the game, Green Harawa replaced him. Harawa would soon get involved into the match when the substitute’s through ball set up Rodrick Gonani who finished superbly.3-0

Blue eagles found their consolidating goal on the 44^th minute through a penalty when silver’s defender was judged to have handled inside the box. After the match silver coach Ndawa was happy with the win.

“I am happy with the win but there is still a long way to go as you know this is just  the first leg the tie is not over yet, the boys are okay and they have really welcomed me.” he said

Blue eagles coach Dickleck Msakakuona accepted the defeat but was confident that the tie was far from over.

“We have lost the game today, when we conceded that first goal my boys failed to pick up, but will go back to training to prepare for the second leg.” he said

Else where

Big bullets FC got their first leg of the standard bank cup quarter final on an impressive form when they narrowly beat Epac united through none other than Gabadinho Mhango’s goal.

Moyale barracks were held by civo service united 1-1 at Chitowe, Chrispin Fukizi and Patrick Gunde doing the job. The capital city based outfit going into the second leg with a valuable away goal.

Finally, Escom united and Mighty wanderer’s game ended into a 1 all draw, Joseph Kamwendo and Kelvin Haganda the scorers. The elections will go into the second leg with and upper  hand as they have scored an away goal.