By Onny Gangata at Bata stadium
NEW Telone coach Hebert Maruwa was satisfied with his side picking a point against Chicken Inn in a one all draw at Bata stadium on Wednesday afternoon in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match.
It was Maruwa’s first game in charge since his appointment as head coach on Thursday last week.
And with the WiFi boys on a seven match winless run coming into the match, pressure was on the hosts to get a result.
Washington Navaya calmed the Telone nerves when he headed the ball past Gamecocks goalkeeper Donovan Bernard after 23 minutes.
But Telone’s lead did not last long as Chicken Inn equalised on the half hour mark through Malvern Whata who scrapped the ball into the nets from close range.
It was a case of poor defending as the Telone defenders allowed Chicken Inn forward Brian Muza time to control the ball inside the box and shoot, his shot was punched by Telone goalkeeper Matripples Muleya into the path of Whata who punished the home side.
But Maruwa picked the positives from the draw against the 2015 champions and believes the result will provide a good base for his side to build on.
“I am very happy with the performance, my first day as coach having trained with the boys for only two days, I am very impressed with our performance today,” he said.
“This is a very good result for us coming from two back to back defeats I am very confident we will bounce back, it gives us confidence going forward.
“We need to manage fatigue as the games are coming too close to each other, we played today and we play again on Saturday so we have two days to train.”
Chicken Inn coach Joey Antipas felt his side dropped two points.
The single point gained moves the WiFi boys into 15th place on the log with 12 points.
I thought we played against a Telone side that had been boosted their confidence by the coming in of a new coach but I thought it was two points dropped,” Antipas said.
