By Onny Gangata
BLACK Rhinos coach Saul Chaminuka believes safety is now within reach after his side came from behind to force a share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw against Chicken Inn at Bata stadium.
The army side have been one of the impressive sides in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League lately this season, despite lying 17th on the log standings with 28 points.
They failed to make it back to back wins for the first time this season after shocking FC Platinum 2-1 in midweek.
After falling behind to a Malvern Hwata goal in the first half, Kudakwashe Nyakudanga’s strike 18 minutes from time rescued a point for Chauya Chipembere.
“We had a good performance but again we missed a lot of opportunities, we could have seen the match off in the first half,”Chaminuka said.
“Our visitors were lucky that they scored first with what to me was a lucky goal. If we had taken our chances and scored first we were going to win.”
While the army side remains 17th on the log standings, the point earned ensures they close the gap on the other sides in the relegation matrix.
With Sheasham losing, and Triangle dropping points at home to Simba Bhora, Rhinos are now three points off Triangle who occupy the last safety spot.
Chaminuka is confident to that his side will win their remaining five matches to survive.
“We have the team to play and survive relegation, we can win our remaining matches,” he added.
“Since my coming here, we have now played all the teams and I don’t think there is a team I can say have beaten us because they have been better, in most cases we were just unlucky but in terms of play we have been better than most teams.”
Had Rhinos been clinical in the match, they could have easily pocketed three points.
Lot Chiunga skied his shot after 15 minutes from the edge of the box while Valentine Katsande chose to pass instead of shooting 10 minutes later.
Immediately after that Hwata beat Rhinos goalkeper Lennon Gonese with an easy tap in from a Michael Charamba cross.
Chicken too were guilty of profligacy in front of goal as Brian Muza wasted a clear cut chance just after the break.
The striker robbed Douglas Mbewe of the ball and raced into the box, instead of placing the ball past Gonese, he went for power sending his effort over the bar.
Xolani Ndhlovu and Charamba were wasteful as well and Chicken Inn coach Prince Matore sounded worried about his side’s poor conversion rate.
“We take a point away from home which is fine but we wasted a lot of chances, this was a game we could have easily won,” he said after the match.
“Most of the matches we are drawing we create too many chances and they fail to convert, we just have to work on our precision.”
