Wa Ganyu 

Painful goals come in the dying minutes, so they say. The last time Silver Strikers visited Blantyre, they scored their winning goal at the dot of 90 minutes through Chinsinsi Maonga and they returned to Lilongwe with maximum points, past defending champions FCB Nyasa Big Bullets.

Today, on their second competitive visit to Kamuzu Stadium this season, it was Chimwemwe Ibrahim who broke the Bankers hearts, especially that of head coach Peter Mponda.

His charges conceded at 95 minutes when referee Mwayi Msungama was just about to blow the whistle and Bankers were leading 2-1.

On this fateful afternoon, it was Stain Davie who made the mistake by pulling a Tigers player and Msungawa could not let that go unpunished. He awarded the home team a free kick.

Precious Chiudza was trusted to take the free-kick. Instead of sending the ball into the 6-yard box, as normally done in the dying minutes, he passed it to Ibrahim whose long and powerful drive flew through a forest of players before hitting the top right corner.

As Tigers players went to the corner to celebrate, Mponda had his hands covering his face, disappointed with the goal conceded.

He described the free kick as a cheap one. “It was a cheap free kick,” he said, adding that he is not under pressure.

“Still unbeaten, no pressure,” he added. 

Tigers coach Leo Mpulula was happy with his boys. “A point today is not bad, we knew we will do better because we do not struggle against a team like Silver,” he said.

Silver was the first team to find the back of the net through Duncan Nyoni at 5 minutes when Tigers failed to defend a corner kick.

The home team levelled at 53 minutes through substitute Messiah Kachingwe but they failed to contain the pressure as Silver scored again at 73 minutes through a powerful header from Nickson Mwase who connected a shot from the corner kick.