Big guns Silver Strikers and FCB Nyasa Bullets are through to the round of 16 in the FDH Bank Cup after booting out Mighty Tigers 1-0 and Chilumba Barracks 5-0, respectively, yesterday.
The Bankers left it late to pip a resilient Kau-Kau Boys, who matched them to-to-toe until the 78th minute when Charles Chipala scored the lone goal at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.
Relief was written all over Silver coach Peter ‘Shoes’ Mgangira’s face, who time and again charged up and down the touchline urging his team to fight on.
On the other hand, his Tigers counterpart Leo Mpulula was a dejected figure after the match as he felt his team deserved more from the contest that ebbed and flowed.
He attributed the defeat to his side’s failure to take their chances.
“Finishing remains our biggest problem, otherwise we dominated this match and we should have won,” he said.
His charges fought every inch of the way, but the currency of football is goals and for all their efforts, Tigers just couldn’t find a way of breaking the visitors’ resistance.
On the other hand, Mgangira admitted that they struggled to play their passing game.
“Otherwise, it wasn’t a difficult game, but we lacked that attacking punch. It wasn’t the performance that we expected, most of the players didn’t come to the party, but to their credit, they kept fighting,” he said.
At Chitipa Stadium, Blantyre-based FCB Nyasa Bullets showed no mercy in the demolition of Chilumba Barracks of Karonga whom they easily swept aside 5-0.
The toast of the afternoon for the visitors was Nigerian forward Babatunde Adepoju, who run riot and netted four goals.
He drew first blood with a simple tap-in from close range after being set-up by Wongani Lungu in the 22ns minute.
Five minutes later, Bullets doubled their lead when Babatunde turned the provider, setting up Chawanangwa Gumbo, who made no mistake from close range.
In the 34th minute, Babatunde was in the picture again. He claimed a brace and Bullets’ third.
The lanky forward then claimed a hat-trick in the 56th minute to make it 4-0 for the People’s Team after the hosts’ defence was caught napping.
He wasn’t done yet.
Babatunde claimed his fourth and Bullets’ fifth two minutes later as the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) appeared to have given up.
Job done, Babatunde was taken off stage 20 minutes later to pave the way for midfielder Mike Mkwate.
At Nankhaka ground in Lilongwe, defending champions Blue Eagles survived fellow TNM Super League rookies Songwe Border United’s scare when they sailled through 5-4 on post-match penalties after playing out goalless draw in regulation time.
In other matches, Lilongwe-based MDF side Kamuzu Barracks beat Thondwe FC of Zomba 3-1 while Creck Sporting Club of Lilongwe booted out Premierbet Dedza Dynamos following a 1-0 win.
