By Precious Bwale
The Kitwe derby came alive and lived up to its billing with high intensity, endless action and two beautiful goals as the match ended in a 1-1 draw at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
Ever since Oswald Mutapa took charge of Power Dynamos, he has yet to taste a derby victory and that streak continues after the draw.
Nkana struck first in the second half, taking the lead in the 67th minute thanks to a Lazarus Kambole goal.
They controlled most of the early phases of the game, showing a strong response after going 10 matches without a win.
Power Dynamos however kept pushing, grew stronger as the match went on, and found the equaliser in the 77th minute through Chifundo Mpansi’s sitter bringing life into the derby.
Nkana’s winless run now extends to 11 games, while Power Dynamos take a point to continue their unbeaten run.
Mutapa said it was a match played in moments with his team created more chances than Nkana.
“It’s a game that we played in moments. Yes, in terms of creation of chances maybe we created five, with them one or two half chances. But you know a Derby,emotions ,you could see from the players the way they reacted. This is just the game. But two points dropped. We could have done better with the chances we had. But this is football, we move on,” he said.
“In terms of performance, like I’ve said, we performed in moments. Of course in the second half energy levels went down. Nkana had a full week of preparation and we only had one day so it was always going to be difficult. But we were much better when we brought in others that were fresh and I feel we could have killed the game at that point,” he added.
Before the game, Coach Mutapa said he wanted the team to play like champions.
And he believes they showed character
“Yes, when we went down, we came through and that’s what you need in a team. You go down, show character, and still come back. We could have won it today,” Mutapa told the ZamFoot Crew.
Despite still not having a derby win under his belt so far during his time in charge of Aba Yellow the coach says he is not disappointed
“I am not disappointed actually. We got a point. We went one goal down and got the result which has pushed us somewhere. For me it’s about the results not personal glory, it’s the result that the team needs,” he said.
“Yeah, I think Nkana played very well. They played very well and hopefully they can continue playing like that. Nkana is a big team, and we want it in the Super League. But they need to ground results, not just in a Derby because others are waiting as well. It’s a difficult league, they just need to build on what they have gotten from this one.”
