COACH Perry Mutapa has shared his thoughts ahead of tomorrow’s match against Kabwe Warriors FC.
NAPSA Stars FC host Kabwe Warriors in a match week-nine of the MTN Super League. The match is scheduled for Heroes Stadium at 15h00.
Here is how Coach Perry has previewed this match during a zoom press briefing;
What are your expectations from this match?
Another tough game for us, it will be our third game in seven days. It won’t be easy, Kabwe warriors are coming from a loss and it’s always very dangerous to play with a team which is coming from a loss because by all means they try to work on what went wrong in the past game. But we are at home and we would like to get the three points.
Enock Sabumukama, your expectations from this match?
It’s not easy like the coach has said. Warriors have not been doing well in their past matches and we have also played a lot of games in a shortest period of time. But there’s morale in the team and we are doing well, I feel we are in a good track and we will try and win tomorrow.
You are playing a team coming from a defeat, what kind of approach do you expect from Kabwe Warriors?
Like I earlier put it, it’s a wounded team, by all means they are trying to work on their mistakes and of course they will get the motivation that in the last encounter they scored goals, but they also allowed some goals. So coming into this game, I know they will try to work on why they allowed those three goals, but also get motivation that they scored two goals which is good for them because before that game, they had not scored a lot of goals in a match if I may recall well, so they will be motivated with those goals coming into this match. But like I said, we are at home and we will try to get the three points.
In the last seven meetings between NAPSA Stars and Kabwe Warriors, we have seen NAPSA Stars lose three times and Warriors winning more games, does the head to head record scare you going into this match ?
The last meetings do not mean anything to us. I started coaching NAPSA Stars last season and everything we are doing together is new, we have new players and of course we have those that are not new and maybe they have that history, but we won’t talk about that because our aim is to get the maximum points tomorrow.
Are you banking on Augustine Mulenga to come to the party again in this match like he did in the previous match?
Augustine did very well, but of course as a team, everyone was great. The guys who were in front, Boster and Musonda did well also, they kept the ball and we had great passing and a lot of possession, so I don’t think we will only rely on Augustine, of course he brings the experience to the team, but as a team, everyone gives their best. We missed a lot of chances in the last match, but we were not scoring in the first matches and we believe our best is yet to come, so we just keep on pushing.
How important is it for you to have this consistency, you have won three games in the last five games, what are you telling the players in terms of consistency?
We keep telling the boys that there’s nothing to be excited about, of course we are happy, but we have to keep the momentum and make sure we keep our feet on the ground because just one loss or a draw and if other teams do well, they leapfrog us. So yes, we are happy where we are on the log, but we are telling the boys that we must still continue pushing.
What would you say has changed in terms of the player’s attitude from before to the way they’re performing now?
The difference is just that we have scored goals, before, we had not scored any goal, and I remember stressing that we will maintain our philosophy and the most important thing is believed that by the time we start scoring, we will see changes in the log standings. So the only difference is we are scoring and we do not concede a lot of goals. We have been like that for some time which is good for us, so for us, we always push the boys that whenever they have chance, they should be converting.
A comment on Warriors, they are coached by one of the best coaches we have in Zambia, facing him again, what do you expect him to bring to the game?
They are lucky to have a seasoned coach like him. I think for me, one of the best coaches. I know he brings a lot to the team and we expect a tough game. He knows how a Zambian player is, he knows his team , so it won’t be easy and we won’t be carried away because they blew away their two nil lead in the last match against Power Dynamos. He is a tactician who brings a lot to the team so we just have to be careful.
Apart from Daniel Adoko who is out owing to a red card picked up in the last match, who else won’t be up for selection tomorrow?
Bernard Katumoya, Simon Nkhata and Jackson Kakuta are out owing to injuries. Felix Banda has been with the national team though dropped but he has not really trained with us so he also won’t be available. Jimmy Mukeya is also out because he is with the national team. It’s an opportunity for the other players to step up.