Newly appointed Dhlakama leads Green Fuel to first win of the season

Barely one week after being appointed following the sacking of technical director Lloyd Mutasa and head coach Bekithemba Ndlovu, Rodwell Dhlakama has led Green Fuel to their first top flight league victory since earning promotion.

Even though the ex-ZPC Kariba gaffer was not seated in the dug out because he is not accreditated by ZIFA after missing out on validating his CAF A License in February, he engineered the victory for the premier league debutants.

He was in charge of the team’s training sessions after the departure of Ndlovu and Mutasa last weekend.

Despite that, on match day, the nomadic gaffer who once had stints in Swaziland and South Africa, also gave instructions to his assistants from the terraces.

Played at National Sports Stadium on Thursday afternoon, the Ethanol Boys recorded their first victory courtesy of Washington Mapuya’s solitary strike just before the half hour mark.

Former Dynamos and FC Platinum star Blessing Moyo could have equalised for the hosts had he not missed his penalty.

Speaking after the match Simba Bhora coach Tonderai Ndiraya bemoaned the absence of Simbarashe Chinani who got injured during the warm up.

The ex-Dynamos coach also pointed out on the issue of fixture congestion, he believes his team was fatigued.

“It has been very difficult for us today, we started very slowly in the first half. In fact, before we started we were unfortunate to lose our first choice goalkeeper Simbarashe Chinani, he got injured during warm up.

“We had to quickly bring on board Rashid (Seidu) our second choice goalkeeper. I thought he was a bit nervous.

“It was his first game, he was so nervous in the first half and that led to so many blunders he made, and of course, the goal that we also conceded.

“But overall, I think we were not really ourselves in the first half. Physically, we were not on point. We traveled to Zvishavane on Sunday to play Sheasham and we had to play again on Thursday.”

He added: “We had to plead with the authorities to have our game pushed to forward.

“I don’t really know the rationale of us playing on Thursday when everyone else is playing at the weekend.

“Naturally, it was difficult for us to manage the recovery of the players that’s why I think we had jaded first half. Naturally, we were down in the first half but t a bit better in the second half.”