No South in Super League title race

As the Super League is set to wind up on the last day of the season on Saturday, no team from the Southern Region is still in contention for the title.

This will be the third successive year Southern Region teams will miss the title.

The three teams that have realistic chances of winning the league are defending champions Silver Strikers, second-placed Mafco and Moyale who are on third position while fourth-placed Kamuzu Barracks have an outside chance.

Mighty Wanderers, who are the only team from the South, are in the top five, but out of contention.

Renowned soccer commentator Charles Nyirenda attributed Southern Region teams’ struggles to inconsistency.

“If you look at teams such as Wanderers and Red Lions, they appeared to be on course for the title, but then they slipped up because they were inconsistent, especially as the league reached the climax.

“But Wanderers should be commended because even after losing five to six good players to foreign clubs, they built a relatively good side,” said Nyirenda.

As for Red Lions, Nyirenda noted that they lost three to four games at a crucial time, which also boiled down to inconsistency.

“Big Bullets did well last season when they fought right to the end, but lost the championship because of an inferior goal difference. There were also other contributing factors such as internal feud and ageing players. As a result, they too, have not been consistent,” he said.

Nyirenda also noted that apart from Escom [now Kabula United] winning the title twice in between, Silver have been dominant.

Wanderers general secretary David Kanyenda and his Big Bullets counterpart Higger Mkandawire shared the view that the common denominator among the title contenders is government sponsorship.

“Since no club from Blantyre is sponsored by government, it is not surprising that we are all out of the title equation, but among the unsponsored civilian teams, we are superior in that we won a silverware this season and we are in the top five,” said Kanyenda.

The last team from the Southern Region to win the title was Escom in the 2010/11 season.