Triangle coach, Taurayi Mangwiro, has expressed disappointment at his team’s 2-0 premier league loss to his former club Harare City at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on Sunday.
Triangle fell to a Guthrie Zhokinyi 41st own goal and a William Manondo 64th minute header and are on position 12th on the log table with 15 points from 14 games.
Addressing members of the media in the wake of the defeat, Mangwiro said while his team were not outwitted, they disappointingly fell short in their application.
“Very, very, very disappointing if anything. [We] had talked about it and said if there is a game that I would want to win, then it is today’s game. We went in there and we fell short, such is football. You don’t want to be losing against your former team.
“I had talked to the players and said it is about the team that is going to apply themselves better. It is going to win because I don’t think there would be anything new that Harare City were going to throw at us. Still as I speak to you right now, I don’t think this is one game that we were outwitted, just that Harare City grabbed the opportunities that came their way . . . it was never a one sided match,” said Mangwiro.
The own goal by the captain a few minutes before half time appeared to paralyse the visitors while handing the home team the much needed advantage.
Mangwiro also rued the team’s missed chances as Harare City come within a point of the Sugar Cane farmers on the log table.
“Yah, I thought we gifted it to them; the two goals that we conceded to them. We conceded the bizzare goal against Yadah, we conceded in similar fashion today; a mix up between the defender and the goalkeeper and you give a team that has not been doing well at home some confidence going forward.
“Then for the second goal, we just went to sleep and they grabbed the opportunity but I’m saying where the opponent managed to punish us, we failed to do so. I thought in the first half we had two good chances where we could have sneaked in with a goal, even at two zero, we still had one very good chance we could have put away,” he added.
“We have put ourselves in a difficult position I must say, the only difference is that perhaps now we have started winning at home, we are no longer dropping many points at home. If we can no longer drop points at home and maybe rediscover the form that we had in the first few games of the season away from home where we were winning or we were drawing.
“Where we are at the moment, we are not in a good position, but I believe there is every opportunity for us to move up, because three points are very precious, you can see what it means for Harare City.
“This time it has been three games on the trot; it has been Yadah, Highlanders, and today it’s Harare City. And it’s disappointing, we need to have a curb to that,” bemoaned Mangwiro.