By Thomas Chidamba
FC Platinum remained at the summit of the Premier League despite a 1-1 draw against Highlanders in an exciting Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match played at Barbourfields stadium in Bulawayo on Sunday.
Fellow miners, Hwange did a huge
favour for FC Platinum by beating second placed Chicken Inn 2-1 to deny them a chance at the apex of the log.
Pure Platinum Play now lead the pack with 28 points while Chicken Inn closely follow with 26 points from 14 games played so far.
The Norman Mapeza coached side continued with their fine run and are gunning for a third consecutive league title.
Chicken Inn can only hope that the platinum miners will slip in form in their quest for the championiship to give them a chance to clinch their second title since their promotion into the top flight league.
While other mining clubs such as Ngezi Platinum, Hwange, and Manica Diamonds are not serious title contenders this year, only FC Platinum have the chance to win the top flight league championship.
A draw against struggling Bulawayo giants, Highlanders, kept FC Platinum’s title hopes alive.
Albert Eonde put Pure Platinum Play in the lead in the 39th minute before Ariel Sibanda equalised for Bosso at the stroke of half time.
Bosso coach Mandla Mpofu said his team was let down by schoolboy mistakes.
“At this stage we cannot afford to make the mistakes we made in the first half. We cannot make silly mistakes against the defending champions, a very well organised team, and we just give them a goal, it’s unacceptable.
“They scored one, but I think they could have scored maybe two with the mistakes we made at the back. But these things happen in football so we have to move forward and soldier on.
“Overall in terms of our tactics we did very well, we wanted to keep possession and we did that. We are not happy with the result today, but we have so many games to play so it’s back to the drawing board and see how we can get those results coming,” he said.
FC Platinum coach Norman Mapeza said a point away was better than nothing.
“I think we worked hard, we were not going for challenges because we do not have the numbers at the moment.
“First half we did well that is when we created some chances; second half there was nothing to talk about. But credit should go to my boys because they worked hard,” he said.
