By McGeorge Mbare
VHEMBE Stars Academy suffered a narrow 1-0 loss to visiting Sabi Gold Mine in a Matchday 20 fixture at Dulibadzimu Stadium on Saturday.
The match was entertaining and lively from the opening whistle to the final blow.
Just five minutes after kick off , Vhembe Stars Academy’s Benedict Sithole made early efforts to find an opening goal, but his attempts were unsuccessful.
The two went into halftime locked at 0-0.
In the second half, Sabi Gold Mine grabbed the lead and defended it successfully to seal victory and take maximum points from Dulivhadzimu Stadium.
Vhembe Stars Academy’s front three of Davies Nyamukondiwa, Benedict Sithole and Morris Toyito Musamba tried to push for an equaliser, but their efforts were not enough.
In an interview with Ziyah News Network after the match, Sabi Gold Mine coach Msendeki said it was a tough and brilliant contest, but praised his technical team for their work.
“The match was brilliant and very difficult, but credit to my technical team for bringing in tactical adjustments which made us prevail and win.
This is a good Academy that plays brilliant football, but we did our job. We came here to win and showed that we were the better team on the day,” Msendeki said.
In his first defeat as Vhembe Stars Academy interim head coach, Paul Mugabiri admitted it was a tough outing.
“It was a tough match and we did our best. We created chances but failed to capitalise on them.
We will go back to work for the next game and we hope to win it,” Mugabiri said.
The defeat leaves Vhembe Stars Academy on 16 points and they will need to dig deep in the coming weeks to survive the relegation zone.