HARARE - CAPS United fans were on Sunday involved in running battles with police demanding the resignation of coach Taurai Mangwiro following their side’s goalless draw against How Mine.
In a sad reflection of the latent problem of hooliganism, Makepekepe fans invaded the VIP bay demanding the resignation of Mangwiro.
The supporters argued that whenever their city rivals Dynamos dropped points, CAPS did not utilise the opportunity accusing Mangwiro of sabotaging the Green Machine.
During his playing days, Mangwiro turned out for DeMbare and his links with the blue and white club have haunted him at CAPS.
Makepekepe, who are in fourth place, trailed Dynamos by five points before yesterday’s match and a win over the Bulawayo gold miners would have meant that United were now only two points behind their city rivals.
After the match, Mangwiro left the pitch and went straight to the stands were he confronted the rowdy fans.
However, commotion ensued as some overzealous CAPS marshals were involved in a nasty physical exchange with the supporters.
In the end, the police had to react to bring order back and had to set their dogs on the marauding fans, who reacted by throwing missiles.
After the situation was back under control, the fans went to the stadium exit where they waylaid the Makepekepe team bus.
It took at least 30 minutes for the CAPS team bus to leave the stadium as police fought running battles with the angry fans.
After the match a visibly shaken Mangwiro bemoaned the missed chances by his players for the disappointing draw.
“I think it is very disappointing. We dominated the match and we should have killed the game in the first half. We created clear cut chances but my boys were not equal to the task,” said Mangwiro.
“We failed to use another good opportunity to close gap on the leading pack at the end of the game we were looking much desperate even the introduction of Tongai Mangwende was a clear sign of desperation.
“I have tried all the strikers I have but goals are not coming, we are creating more opportunities even in our previous matches but we are lacking completion of runs.
“It’s so disappointing, look at our last match against FC Platinum we did the same. We are going on back on what we were working on in the past week, surely we need to start scoring if we want to remain in the title race.
“If you look in our last five leaguer matches we did not concede so I think we only need to improve on our scoring. Today we also made a lot of mistakes in the middle of the park and at most we were second to the ball.”
How Mine coach Luke Masomere was happy with the draw.
"I think we played very well although we failed to utilised a few chances which came on our way,” he said.
“As I said we are building a team for the next season, generally I am happy to collect a point playing against former champions.”