Mutasa in Platinum test

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WHETHER he sabotaged sacked Portuguese coach Paulo Jorge Silva or not is another story, but Lloyd Mutasa begins his own fight for a lengthy stay on the Dynamos coaching job with a tough home fixture against unbeaten FC Platinum at Rufaro this afternoon.

WHETHER he sabotaged sacked Portuguese coach Paulo Jorge Silva or not is another story, but Lloyd Mutasa begins his own fight for a lengthy stay on the Dynamos coaching job with a tough home fixture against unbeaten FC Platinum at Rufaro this afternoon.

BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE

Silva was sacked last Thursday following a string of poor results that left the Harare giants reeling in 12th place on the log standings, with five points from five matches so far this season.

Mutasa, who was Silva’s assistant and has been accused of masterminding the Portuguese’s downfall, will be looking to steer the Glamour Boys out of the mud with his new position to be reviewed after five matches.

Having had one practice session prior to today’s epic encounter, Mutasa is hoping to endear himself with the troubled Dynamos fans by helping the team bounce back to winning ways, or a least their first league goal at Rufaro, something they have failed to do so far this season.

“Coaching Dynamos is a big task and every coach wants to be part of a big institution. We know what the multitudes of Dynamos fans want and we are going to try our best to please them starting today. I would like the results to speak for me. I would like to take [my task] game by game and for now, my focus is on playing FC Platinum,” he said in an interview with Standardsport.

“Scoring has been our main problem area and we have been trying to address it all along and today [Friday] we were trying to make things happen upfront. Everything has got a beginning and I hope we will be able to score goals at Rufaro for the first time in a league match and most importantly, win the match,” Mutasa added.

Mutasa, a former FC Platinum coach, said his players were not affected by the change in the technical department.

On the other hand, FC Platinum are currently in second place and are yet to lose a match in their opening five matches of the current Castle Lager Premier Soccer League campaign.

The platinum miners are also unbeaten in their last 26 premier league matches, in a mazy run which started after the defeat to Dynamos at Rufaro on May 9 last year.

However, FC Platinum coach Norman Mapeza said they were not reading much into their unbeaten run as well as the events at Dynamos last week and were focused on today’s match.

“We haven’t lost a premier league match in a while as you have said, but we are not concerned about that, neither are we focusing on what has been happening at Dynamos. That’s all part of the game and the most important thing is for us to play well and try to come out with a positive result,” Mapeza said.

FC Platinum go into today’s encounter on the back of a goalless draw against Harare City last week and would be determined to bounce back to winning ways against a struggling Dynamos side.