‘ROUGH PATCH TEST OF CHARACTER’

LOBAMBA – Four games, one win, one draw and two defeats is the current statistic for stuttering MTN Premier League defending champions Green Mamba.

The Correctional Services side is having an opposite start to last season as they had not lost or dropped a point after four matches to the league season. In fact, they went on to win eight games in a row before Mbabane Highlanders and Malanti Chiefs stopped them with 2-1 and 1-0 defeats (See table of their 10-match run last season). However, this time around, the defence to the title seems to be taking the wrong direction as they have gone eight points behind pacesetters Mbabane Swallows who have won all their games and conceded only once while scoring 12 times.

The last scar to be suffered by Green Mamba was last Friday night in an entertaining encounter with sugar-belt side Tambuti who beat them 1-0. “We are having a rough patch and it is one we will have to quickly get past. It’s a different start compared to last season and what’s important is that we get out of it. Obviously we have to be strong mentally. The players need to be very strong as only we can stop this rough patch which happens in football,” admitted Ngwenya when journalists asked him about their poor run in the post-match conference. Ngwenya also said that the Tambuti game was also one they started badly in only to start playing better in the second half but in the end still lost. His club’s Captain and defender Banele ‘Makonese’ Dlamini reiterated his words when he said ‘this was about them’ as players.

“It’s all in our minds now and it’s up to us get out of this. We expected pressure as defending champions but as the coach said, we have to be mentally strong as it’s nothing but a test of character for us,” he said. He also said they were confident that this phase would pass as they were working hard at training to change the situation. However, for this particular match, he expressed disappointment that they spent all week preparing to win only for the match to be decided by other factors without clearly mentioning what exactly he felt went wrong.
Tambuti’s Terisayi Changara was over the moon for the win and said even the 5-0 loss to Swallows in the previous match was not a true reflection of the game. He said they were targeting a top four finish this season.

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