{"id":24768,"date":"2016-05-23T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T10:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=24768"},"modified":"2016-05-23T12:00:32","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T10:00:32","slug":"honeymoon-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2016\/05\/23\/honeymoon-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Honeymoon over"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/strong>NM Super League leaders, Blue Eagles were soaring, but their feathers were finally plucked Sunday when their unbeaten run came to a halt after losing 1-2 to Silver Strikers at Silver Stadium in Lilongwe.<\/p>\n

Matthew Sibale and Thuso Paipi\u2019s goals saw Eagles\u2019 cushion shrink from eight points to four as they lead on 18 points from seven games ahead of Mafco\u2019s 14 points from a similar number of games.<\/p>\n

The league leaders left the stadium gnashing their teeth after Sibale\u2019s glancing header beat John Soko at the near post with five minutes before recess.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Paipi scored a stunner with his left leg after 65 minutes when he was given more space on the edge of the box. It was a sublime finish that mesmerised fans.<\/p>\n

Eagles attackers John Malidadi Jnr and Maxwell Salambula were kept at bay by Silver defenders Chisomo Mpachika and Mike Robert.<\/p>\n

In a post-match interview, Silver assistant coach Lovemore Fazili said it was their game-plan to stop the high-flying Eagles after losing to them in Presidential Cup on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Eagles mentor Derklerk Msakakuona said: \u201cWe knew that one day we would slip up, but we also missed a lot of scoring opportunities in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the log table, Silver have jumped from fourth to third with 13 points, replacing Mzuni who suffered two straight 2-0 defeats on the road.<\/p>\n

In Blantyre, after losing 2-0 to defending champions, Nyasa Big Bullets, on Saturday at Kamuzu Stadium, the students also lost by a similar margin to Azam Tigers yesterday.<\/p>\n

Tigers\u2019 second consecutive league victory was courtesy of Bright Munthali and Peter Katsonga\u2019s second-half goals.<\/p>\n

Mzuni, whose coach Alex Ngwira, complained about poor officiation, have since slipped to sixth with 10 points with Bullets climbing up from sixth to fourth with 12 points from six matches. Tigers have also crawled from seventh to fifth with 11 points.<\/p>\n

Down the lower half, McPeter Makwale scored for a third straight game as Red Lions defeated hosts Dwangwa United 1-0 yesterday to snap up a five-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

Lions moved up from 14th to 13 on the ladder with six points at par with Wizards, who hit back to beat Max Bullets 2-0 also yesterday for a second league win of the season.<\/p>\n

Max Bullets and Dwangwa have three points each, whereas Karonga United anchor the table with one point from two games, the latest being yesterday\u2019s goal-less home draw against Be Forward Wanderers. The Nomads have dropped by a step to 11th with seven points.<\/p>\n

The Nomads face Moyale Barracks today at Mzuzu Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TNM Super League leaders, Blue Eagles were soaring, but their feathers were finally plucked Sunday when their unbeaten run came to a halt after losing 1-2 to Silver Strikers at Silver Stadium in Lilongwe. Matthew Sibale and Thuso Paipi\u2019s goals saw Eagles\u2019 cushion shrink from eight points to four as they lead on 18 points […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24775,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24768\/revisions\/24775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}