Matola praises Bajaber, admits Simba SC need to turn chances into goals

Simba SC stand-in coach Suleiman Matola praised the arrival of Kenyan midfielder Mohammed Bajaber, who scored on his first game for the Tanzanian side in their 3-0 victory against Mbeya City at Major General Isamuhyo Stadium on Thursday.

Since signing for Simba before the start of the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) which was co-hosted in East Africa, the former Nairobi United, and Kenya Police FC midfielder was yet to play in front of the Msimbazi Reds faithful.

Bajaber arrived at Simba already struggling with injury which could have seen him miss the CHAN tournament that Kenya reached the knockout stages on their first attempt but lost to Madagascar to exit the stage on penalties.

The Kenyan star came on as a second half substitute and scored the third goal to help Simba register their fourth win of the season. Discussing Bajaber, Matola praised the youngster for his patience while under the treatment table, further saying he had shown why Simba went for his services.

Bajaber is a player with top quality

“It was a good day for Bajaber, he is such a good player, but he arrived at Simba with bad luck, with injury, it was his first game today, and he showed what he can do, and why Simba wanted his services,” Matola told Pan-Africa Football.

“He got one chance, and managed to score, and he has shown his abilities, and why Simba had to be patient to have him in the squad despite the injury disruption, I know he will be the happiest man today, and more than happy he chose Simba as his team.”

On beating Mbeya City, Matola said: “I told you earlier, we must contain the game, we wanted to manage the midfield, and we did it very well, we created several chances especially in the first half but never used them, we needed to have scored like four goals.

“The same happened in the second period, we created several chances but there was nothing good to show from it, I think we will still have a lot of work to change this, we have to do it in training and make sure we turn our chances into goals.”

On facing Azam FC in their next league fixture on Sunday, Matola remained confident: “The win against Mbeya is a huge boost ahead of the derby, it gives us everything heading into the game against Azam, and we know it won’t be easy but we are ready for Azam.”

Mbeya City coach Patrick Mwangata said they lost the game after one of his players was sent off: “We lost everything after my player was sent off, it was a bit earlier and made our game plan to change.

“The players got confused after the red, so we urged them to try and control the ball because we were playing one man down (after the red card), but we wanted to have possession and counter attack them, but remember Simba is a very good team, and they know how to read the game.”

The emphatic win pushed Simba to fifth on the log with a maximum 12 points from four matches. They are now one point behind leaders and rivals Young Africans.

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