Forest Rangers interim head coach Kennedy Kashobondo has blamed the match official for his side’s 2-1 Week 7 Super League defeat to Green Eagles at Independence Stadium in Choma.
Eagles came from behind to beat Forest who had taken a lead through Jack Chirwa’s 15th minute strike. A brace from Freddy Michael was enough for the Choma side to collect maximum points.
The match was officiated by Chingola-based referee Hilarry Hambaba, who was assisted by Thomas Simukoko from Livingstone and Gertrude Nyirenda of Lusaka as the first and second assistant referees, respectively.
In an interview, Kashobondo said he observed biassed officiating from the center referee, who made some ‘hometown’ decisions.
Kashobondo notes that his side has managed to collect a point whenever they played away and feels they deserved a point away if not for poor officiating by Hambaba.
He adds that the decision made the referee’s decisions demoralized his team.
“In this game, we were supposed to collect a point, but I think the officiating was questionable. There were decisions that I saw that were very unfair,” Kashobondo said.
‘Eagles’ second goal was unfairly awarded’
Kashobondo argued that, “For the Green Eagles’ second goal, the referee was supposed to protect our goalkeeper, Daniel [Mutshinenumu]; he had the ball, but the striker [Freddy Michael] just went in and hit our goalkeeper. The injury led to the substitution of Daniel,”
“He gave them the goal, which was not supposed to be there. That decision demoralized our plans and our team at large.”
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The defeat was Forest’s second in six Super League matches, as they remain in 11th position.
Kashobondo is optimistic the team will do well in their upcoming rescheduled Week 6 match against FC MUZA.
“We have a game in hand against FC MUZA. It will be an interesting match….. But we need to plan well, psych our players from this defeat, and then we can get a positive result on Saturday,” he concluded.
