Black Rhinos stand by Stix

By Nigel Matongorere

The Black Rhinos executive is firmly behind coach Stanford “Stix” Mutizwa after a recent run of poor form that has seen the army side lose their last seven Castle Lager Premiership matches.

After a bright start in the first half of the season, Chauya Chipembere are now in danger of being sucked into a relegation dog fight due to their poor form.

Rhinos are currently in eighth place on the log with 31 points from 23 matches following consecutive defeats to Ngezi Platinum Stars (4-2), Chapungu (3-0), Dynamos (1-0), Bantu Rovers (1-0), Chicken Inn (1-0), CAPS United (2-1) and FC Platinum (1-0).

It is such an astonishing sequence of results considering that Chauya Chipembere were top of the log for a number of weeks.

Even players like James Mukombwe, Sydney Linyama and Bruce Homora were called up to the Zimbabwe national team owing to their performances for Rhinos.

The army side’s secretary lieutenant-colonel Camble Sithole said they are confident Mutizwa will turn around the club’s fortunes.

“As the executive, we are fully behind our coach. We are 100 percent behind him and we are sure that he can turn it around,” Sithole told the Daily News.

“He will get the team back to winning ways starting with our next match against Triangle at home this weekend.”

Sithole added: “If you look at all the matches we have lost, the team has given their best but have just been unlucky. We are losing matches by narrow score lines like 1-0 or 2-1.”

In a bid to help turn around the fortunes at the One Commando-based side, there have been some changes in Mutizwa’s backroom staff with Maronga Nyangela and Gift Makoni no longer part of the first team technical team.

“Since the commencement of the season, Mutizwa has not been working with a substantive team of assistants,” Sithole said.

“Those guys were not able to sit on the bench because they did not have the requisite qualifications so we have asked Mutizwa to look for suitably qualified assistants.

“At the moment he is yet to forward the names of the candidates he has identified to fill the positions.” Daily News