Ngezi Platinum coach Tonderai Ndiraya expressed his disappointment to the referee, Hardly Ndazi after his team succumbed to their first defeat of the season at the hands of Bulawayo Chiefs on Sunday.

Madamburo lost 1-0 in a match they finished with nine men after Xolisani Moyo and Clive Augusto were sent off in the second half.

Augusto was the first to be expelled on the hour mark, and Moyo who came in as a 73rd-minute substitute lasted only nine minutes on the field as he was wrongly shown a red card. The referee adjudged the former Bulawayo City midfielder to have stumped on a Chiefs player in an off-the-ball incident. Instead, it was Micheal Charamba who was supposed to be sent off.

“The second bookable offence for Clive Augusto was too harsh, and as for Xolisani Moyo, he was not close to the incident, but he got a red card, and I think it is a case of mistaken identity,” said Ndiraya in a post-match interview.

“The match official made mistakes in a big game like this. I’m disappointed by what happened today.”

The coach also questioned the referee’s decision not to award a penalty when Charamba was fouled inside the box a few moments before the home team took the lead from the spot through Gracious Muleya.

“So many things happened that I’m not happy with as a coach.

“There was a penalty decision that went against us when Charamba was clearly impeded as he was going for goal, but the referee thought otherwise,” he added.