FC Platinum conceded only 14 goals last season on their way to a record-equalling fourth league title on the bounce.

The platinum miners fired from all cylinders and had a watertight defence marshaled by the ageless Gift Bello, which was rarely breached.

But this season, the defending champions look completely different.

They have already conceded 11 goals in their first nine league games and only Premiership debutants GreenFuel have conceded more.

Not even a goalkeepers rotation —which has Petros Mhari, Wallace Magalane and Francis Tizai all take part in the first nine games of the season —has helped solved the problem.

The return to fitness of the influential Bello, appears to be also not stopping them from conceding.

Norman Mapeza’s charges have kept a clean sheet in only one of their nine league matches so far —a 1-0 victory over Cranborne Bullets.

Consequently,  the Platinum miners have not won any of their last five league games and slowly loosing ground in the title race.

While history will remember that FC Platinum are slow starters, reality shows they might not be as strong as they were last season.

They were totally outplayed by Ngezi Platinum Stars at Boabab on Saturday as Takesure Chiragwi’s men recorded their first win over the Zvishavane-based side at home, since 2017.

They also surrendered a 2-0 lead against Manica Diamonds at Mandava Stadium last week,  to settle for a 2-2 stalemate.

Slow start or serious struggles? Only time will tell.