Coach Perry Mutapa has previewed our week-15 match against Nkana FC in a pre-match Press briefing held via zoom with the media this morning.
NAPSA Stars FC will host Nkana at Heroes Stadium tomorrow.
Here’s how the briefing proceeded;
Coach your team hosts Nkana FC tomorrow. What are your expectations from this match?
A very big game, playing with the best supported team in Zambia. Obviously, we expect a huge crowed. They always play with the 12th player more especially in Lusaka, so it’s going to be big for us and for them too because they’re coming from a loss, and we are coming from a draw.
You seem to have the same problem of not scoring goals, do you think you need a top striker?
Yes we are not scoring many, but we have scored some goals in the last matches which is an improvement from the past. I know we could do better especially in the last game, but obviously this is a department we are looking forward to improve. If we scored two even the game against Nchanga we could have won if we scored two. But it’s a department we want to improve on and we are working towards that in every training session. We can’t sign any striker for now so we have to work with what we have.
The goals you’ve conceded in your last four matches, does that worry you?
Not really considering the way we are creating chances. I believe in all matches we have lost, we have created a lot of chances, so it’s a matter of just scoring goals more especially from our strikers. We are a team that does not concede a lot of goals but sadly we have conceded a number of them in the past matches. But we are working on that again. We have seen some improvement and I hope these last two games we don’t concede.
NKANA will be without their key man Alex Ng’onga. Do you feel that is sort of a relief for you?
Alex Ngonga has been there for most part of the season and I have not seen much from him. But I have to worry about who is available for my team and not their team.
The ABSA Cup is around the corner and your team has dropped in form in the past matches. Does this worry you that you won’t get the chance to defend the trophy?
It’s a worry but it has not reached that stage yet. Slots are still available to be taken so for us the most important thing is to win tomorrow’s game. The only two teams who are sure and guaranteed of qualification are Power and Red Arrows, but for the four slots, teams still have to fight. Mathematically we are still in the race so we will push until the last game especially if tomorrow will not go well then maybe we can rule ourselves out, but for now we keep fighting.
You are facing a wounded Nkana side, what message do you have for your players going into this match?
We are wounded as well because we’ve not done well in the last past matches, but we get the motivation that even from the last five games we have not done well, we are 12th on the log and we just need a win or two to push us ahead on the log. Yes they are wounded and they will come with their magnificent supporters but we are home and we want to win and be on the better position on the log.
What can you describe as a fair result at home for you in this match?
We are at home and a win for us will be a fair result especially after not doing so well. SO fair result will be a win because it will also see us move from where you are on the log.
You have a decent home run of four wins, one draw and two losses in seven matches. How important do you think your home run will be to achieve your seasonal objectives?
We have done so well at, so as a team, we have talked about this that Heroes should be a fortress for us. We are planning on getting maximum points at home, we keep on pushing, we keep on working. Stopping the run of loses against Nchanga was very important for us even though we wanted to win but drew. So we are hoping for better results tomorrow.
The league seems to be tight in terms of point difference, how can you describe it for your side so far?
For my team it’s just the consistency, if we had the consistency things could have been different. From the patch we have gone through, we have worked so hard as a team to make sure we come back on track. This league has also seen almost all the teams not being consistent and I wish we can capitalize on that.