HARARE - Washington Pakamisa scored his first league goal of the season to steer Dynamos to a deserved Castle Premiership 1-0 win over old rivals Highlanders here yesterday.
DeMbare put behind them the disappointment of last week’s defeat to Hwange and maintained their seven-year dominance over the Bulawayo giants.
The Glamour Boys’ win also ended Highlanders’ unbeaten run after 12 rounds of action. It was a game of two halves with both teams taking turns to dominate.
Highlanders coach Kelvin Kaindu bemoaned his team’s negative approach to the match.
“These are type of matches are supposed to be highly explosive. The way we approached match, I think we lacked character,” Kaindu said after the match.
“We picked up in the second half but we failed to penetrate and score the goals. We lost possession at the critical areas.
“It’s the character we need to work on. If maybe we had started the way we finished then we could be talking of something different.
“It’s very unfortunate we lost otherwise we had wanted to march on undefeated. It’s part of the game we need to go back to the drawing board and re-group.”
His counterpart Calisto Pasuwa played down the significance of his team’s win over their bitter rivals.
“Highlanders is one the teams in the Premier League. We wanted the three points and I am happy for Dynamos for collecting maximum points.
“We have always wanted to close the gap with the leading teams. We need to stay at a shouting distance.
The match started with both teams struggling to the get into their grove. It was DeMbare, however, who settled first and caused some anxious moments for the Bosso defence.
Ronald Chitiyo could have opened the scoring for Dynamos in the 15th minute after finding space inside the box but his shot was well saved by Njabulo Nyoni, who started between the post for Highlanders.
DeMbare kept Bosso on the back foot and were duly rewarded in the 35th minute when Pakamisa capitalized on defensive mix-up between Dumisani Ndlovu and Innocent Mapuranga with a well taken shot from a tight angle.
Bosso came back a rejuvenated side in the second half, keeping DeMbare in their own half. Highlanders however failed to make meaningful raids or at times they found the DeMbare defenders unyielding.
The defeat saw Bosso drop to fourth place on the log table with 21 points.
Dynamos: Artwell mukandi, Blessing Moyo, Ocean Mushure, Partson Jaure, Themba Ndlovu, Stephen Alimenda, Murape Murape (Tichaona Mabvura, 68m), Ronald Chtiyo, Washington Pakamisa, Anesu Gondo (Simba Sithole, 84m), Devon Chafa Tawanda Muparati, 77m).
Highlanders: Njabulo Nyoni, Kuda Mahachi (Valentine Ndaba, 70m), Simon Munawa, Charles Sibanda, Bruce Kangwa, Innocent Mapuranga, Dumisani Ndlovu, Eric Mudzingwa, Welcome Ndiweni, Gabriel Nyoni (Ozias Zibande, 56m), Joel Ngodzo (Knox Mutizwa, 71m).