TNM Super League: Mponda attributes loss to cup hangover

Malawi’s FCB Nyasa Big Bullets coach Peter Mponda has suggested that his team might have lost 0-1 to Blue Eagles in a TNM Super League match on Sunday due to a cup hangover.

In a post-match interview, Mponda suggested that his players might have gone into the match at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre nursing the Airtel Top 8 cup-winning hangover. Bullets beat Silver Strikers the previous weekend to win the cup.

“We didn’t play in terms of defending and even attacking, we were not there,” the coach said.

“I don’t know, maybe it was a hangover after our cup final win. We have disappointed our supporters who came in large numbers to support us.”

A win could have presented Bullets a chance to cut leaders Mighty Wanderers’ cushion to three points. The defeat handed the initiative to the rivals who remained six points clear at the summit of the 16-member log table, leaving Mponda to rue his club’s ‘flat’ performance.

He said: “There was everything to play for, but the way we played, I don’t think we deserved to get anything from this game. Apart from Ephraim Kondowe’s shot which hit the crossbar, there was nothing we did. That was the only effort shot we took on target. Apart from that we were very flat.

Laurent Banda scored the only goal in the 79th minute to stun the partisan crowd. Forward Hassan Kajoke had fluffed what appeared as Bullets’ clearest chance earlier before Eagles punished the hosts.

The Nomads, as Wanderers are called, forced an away one-all draw with Moyale Barracks FC on Saturday in the Northern Region.