The Pensioners suffered their first defeat on Saturday at the expense of Ndola outfit Gomes FC, after enjoying a seven-game unbeaten run.
Napsa Stars FC lost by a goal to nil in a week-17 match of the Eden National Division One League played at Woodlands Stadium in Lusaka.
Team Head Coach Perry Mutapa described the loss to Gomes FC as a painful defeat, stating that his boys missed a number of good chances in the first half that could have seen the team carry the day.
Coach Perry was saying in his post-match interview that the team controlled the game and had clear chances which the team could have capitalized on to score goals in the first half.
‘’It’s a sad result but I think sometimes in Football it wakes the team up because if we scored the missed chances, we could have been talking about something else.’’ He said.
The loss saw NAPSA maintain their 32 points and leading the log after 17 games played which marked the end of the first round of the season.
The Head Coach also noted how most of substitutions he made did not add positive impact to the game.
The Coach utilized all his five substitutions with the first changes coming just at the start of the second half introducing Daniel Adoko and Jimmy Mukeya who came in for Musonda Kapembwa and Joseph Malambwa.
In the 58th minute, coach Perry made another change with Doisy Soko coming in to replace Thomas Banda. Chanda Mushili came in the 72nd minute to replace Aaron Kabwe.
Kennan Phiri was Coach Perry’s last substitution who came in the 83rd minute to replace Simon Nkhata.
“We lost control of the game after making some substitutions in the second half, we could have done better,” Coach added.
Gomes FC scored a spectacular bicycle kick through Wilson Chisala from a cross delivered by substitute Freeman Musonda in the 69th minute of the game.
The Pensioners created a number of chances with the most notable ones coming from Simon Nkhata shot that was denied by Gomes FC goalkeeper Josphat Lilanda before going on half time in the 45th minute.
Thomas Banda missed two clear cut chances in the first half when he ballooned his efforts way over the bar after receiving great crosses from Austin Banda.
The game was not short of interesting scenes after an Austine Banda free kick went slightly wide in the 75th minute.
The game marked the end of the first round with the second round commencing on January 8, 2022.