Zanaco Football Club head coach Numba Mumamba has blamed his team’s 2-1 loss to league leaders Red Arrows FC on the substitution of Dominic Kanda that he made in the second half.
The Bankers, who are second in the league with 24 points, lost to Red Arrows in their Week 12 fixture, a result that allowed the Airmen to open a three-point lead with a game in hand.
Zanaco had taken the lead in the 27th minute through Eliya Mandanji’s goal. However, just when victory seemed certain, Red Arrows equalised late in the 80th minute via Joseph Phiri and then found the winner five minutes later through Paul Katema to secure all three points.
Arrows are now top of the table with 27 points from 11 games. They are on an 11-match unbeaten run, having won eight games and drawn three so far this season.
Speaking to journalists after the match, Mumamba described the game as “a game of two halves.”
“Firstly, I would describe this game as a game of two halves. I think first we dominated play and managed to go ahead. In the second half after Kanda was shown a yellow card, we decided to pull him out, thinking they could give him another card, but after we removed him, that is when the team lost stability and the Red Arrows took over the proceedings, and they managed to get the two goals,” he said.
A disappointing second half
Numba admitted he was not pleased with how his team performed after the break.
“In the second half, we didn’t play according to what we expected to do. I think we needed to be consistent the way we played in the first half. We should have maintained the same, but unfortunately, after the change that we made on Kanda, it affected our plan, and Red Arrows capitalised on that.
“And you know we were playing the most experienced and the best team in the country, and when such lapses come into play, I think you end up losing the game, but otherwise the boys have done very well. We are not disappointed with the performance of the team; all we need is to encourage them as we prepare for our next game,” Mumamba added.
Zanaco will now turn its attention to their next match against Power Dynamos.
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