Pressure continued to mount on Be Forward Wanderers technical panel Sunday after the team’s barren draw against Karonga United in a TNM Super League match at Balaka Stadium.
Wanderers have not been impressive starting from their pre-season matches where they struggled to score against small teams.
The poor form continued when the team finished last in the four-team Fam Charity where goals continued to elude the Nomads.
The Nomads may have won two matches and drawn two, but the team’s executive committee showed its discontent with the technical panel’s performance and asked it to win the next five games or face the chop.
The warning came after a 2-0 loss to Azam Tigers on Tuesday and already, the Yasin Osman-led panel has failed at its first hurdle.
And Karonga came into yesterday’s match as if they had conspired to endanger Osman’s job. The lakeshore side deployed man-marking tactics that kept Wadabwa out of the game.
This left newly-signed striker Dziko Mkanda with the task of finding the goals for the Nomads, but he missed several chances in the first half.
Wanderers came into the second half with the hunger to find the back of the net with skipper Alfred Manyozo combining with veteran midfielder Joseph Kamwendo in their bid to harm Karonga but nothing worked.
Karonga goalkeeper, Happy Msowoya, was simply in a class of his own as he made several breathtaking saves to avert danger.
A goal-bound header from defence stalwart, Lucky Malata, nearly tilted the match in the Nomads’ favour but Msowoya was on call to deny him.
As expected, Osman looked unhappy and declined to grant interviews to inquisitive journalists after the match, and instead referred them to his assistant, Bob Mpinganjira.
“It is unfortunate that we have drawn against Karonga despite playing well. Luck was not on our side,” Mpinganjira said in his brief comment.
He flatly declined to comment on the five-match ultimatum.
Karonga United Head Coach, Christopher Nyambose, said he was delighted with the result.
“Things worked according to our game plan. We planned to dominate them and we did just that,” Nyambose said.
As the two teams trooped out of the pitch, visibly angry Wanderers supporters chanted for the resignation of Osman and his backroom staff.
They accused the technical panel of failing to make the right substitutions.
The match may have ended without incidents but Karonga players were forced to walk a distance of about 500 metres to catch their team bus as Wanderers supporters harassed them.
Other results:
Kamuzu Barracks 3 Red Lions 2
TN Stars 2 Masters Security 1
Mafco 1 Dwangwa United 1
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