BB title hopes fade

Big Bullets yesterday gifted TNM Super League leaders Red Lions three goals and with it, certainly the championship, after a disastrous defensive display at Kamuzu Stadium.

The Lions sit proudly at the top of the table with a five-point cushion on 40 points from 22 games after mercilessly preying on Bullets 3-2 on a humid afternoon that ended peacefully.

Diverson Mlozi and Chimango Kaira scored for Bullets whereas Benjamin Kalua, Pearson Panje and Kumbunani Mwambene did the business for the visitors.

This was Bullets’ second defeat in the second round as they lie second on 35 points from 22 games.

In Balaka, the People’s Team’s arch-rivals Mighty Wanderers drew 0-0 with bottom-placed Mzuzu United to remain fifth on 34 points.

“We gifted them three soft goals and they deserved to win. It is sad that we have lost, but we cannot blame an individual. We lost as a team. It is incorrect to suggest that we featured three defenders; there were four. Maybe people did not notice,” said Bullets assistant coach Gerald Phiri in a post-match interview.

Bullets deployed a three-man defence of Sankhani Mkandawire, Douglas Chirambo and George Nyirenda who could not deal with the Lions direct counter-attacking play. Every time the soldiers floated the ball beyond the Bullets’ defence, one anticipated a goal.

In the sixth minute, Mkandawire’s backwards header landed in the box on to the path of Kalua, who gratefully flicked past Bullets goalkeeper Owen Chaima.

Ten minutes later, Mlozi replied for Bullets, heading freely off Fischer Kondowe’s cross. It was Mlozi’s third league goal in two consecutive matches and his sixth of the season.

Half-time ended 1-1, but the Zomba soldiers added two quick goals inside two minutes from the 51st  minute, first through Panje, who arrived at the back post to slot a corner-kick which the out-of-sorts Chaima missed.

Then the Lions put matters beyond the Bullets’ reach when Mwambeni, after another cleverly floated ball over the Bullets’ human-wall, sped past retreating Mkandawire to place the ball past Chaima. It was Mwambeni’s ninth league goal.

In added time, Kaira added the second from a rebound after a fumble of Chirambo’s free kick by the Lions’ man-of-the match ‘keeper Jacob Kaunda. But it was rather too little and too late.