HARARE - CAPS United striker Leonard Fiyado spent the first half of the season desperately searching for goals, enduring a terrible run of form during that spell.
Fiyado’s first goal of the season finally arrived in Week 18 of the Castle Premiership when he scored the consolation in United’s contentious 2-1 away defeat to Hwange last Thursday.
In the previous 17 matches, the former Gunners man had struggled for goals and eventually lost his place in the starting XI.
During Fiyado’s goal drought, CAPS coach Taurai Mangwiro was now preferring to start with Dominic Chungwa upfront.
As Fiyado’s woes continued, the club took matters into their own hands and signed forward Honey Chimutimunzeve from lower division side Black Mambas during the midseason transfer window.
Chimutimunzeve’s arrival at the Green Machine signalled almost an end to Fiyado’s place in the team.
Fiyado’s confidence plummeted terribly and was reduced to a bit-part impact player, often having to come off the bench with few minutes remaining in the game.
Even his body language in recent weeks was all wrong as the forward struggled to find the back of the net.
When he got the opportunity to play, Fiyado would get into some good positions, but the wrong option at the crucial moment often let him down.
Strikers need to be selfish some times to be successful, but Fiyado would quickly pass on the responsibility to someone else instead of going for the kill.
There was, however, a silver lining on the horizon for the forward after ending his goal drought with that strike at Colliery.
On Sunday, Fiyado doubled his season tally when he once again found the target against Chiredzi FC at Rufaro Stadium.
The forward came off the bench to replace the injured Chungwa after only 20 minutes and was on the score sheet right on the stroke of halftime.
Fiyado completed his double a minute later from the spot in added time of the first half to seal off a convincing 3-0 win for the Green Machine.
After that goal drought that stretched for 17 matches, suddenly Fiyado is now in the goals with three in two matches.
The striker admitted his relief after finally ending his drought with three strikes in the last two matches.
“It feels great to finally score,” Fiyado told the Daily News. “At least the pressure is off my shoulders after going for a long spell without scoring.
“As a striker, if you don’t score you sometimes start to ask yourself if you are good enough for the team and if you are doing your best.
“But I never let that doubt affect my game because the coach was encouraging me all the time telling me ‘to keep on working hard at training’.
“When I finally got my first goal of the season against Hwange it was a huge relief and with my confidence back it was easy to maintain that scoring form against Chiredzi.”
Sunday’s win moved CAPS into third place on the log standings with 33 points and now trail log leaders ZPC Kariba and second-placed Dynamos by only two points.
“We have a chance to fight for the league title and the good thing is that our destiny is in our own hands,” Fiyado said of United’s chances of clinching their first title since 2005.
“We need to apply ourselves in the remaining matches and if we take it game by game, we can get there at the end of the season.”