Leaders Buildcon maintain 100 percent start

by Staff Reporter

Thursday Sep 23, 2021. 10:00

Buildcon on Wednesday continued to set the pace in the 2021/2022 FAZ Super League season for a third straight game but left it late to beat hosts Forest Rangers 2-1 in their Ndola derby at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium.

Boyd Mulwanda’s side stay top after maintaining their 100 percent start on 9 points at the end of Week Three.

Both goals came in the last twenty five minutes of the second half following a cagey affair up to that point through substitutes Patrick Ngoma and Michael Bwalya.

Buildcon were the slightly better side throughout and could have taken lead in the 27th minute when Brian Mwila slipped through Forest’s defence but some brave goalkeeping by Allan Chibwe denied him with a well-timed, two-footed clearance to deny the Chipolopolo striker his second goal of the season.

Two minutes later, Forest defender Diego Apanene’s fine free-kick was parried by Buildcon goalkeeper Prince Malikani to see the two sides’ go scoreless into halftime.

Buildcon continued to slowly turn on the pressure after the restart and in the 54th minute, Chibwe parried Kizito Keziron’s strike as the afternoon gradually turned out to be a busy one for him.

The game came alive in the 65th minute when Ngoma replaced Tapson Kaseba and Bwalya came on for Isaac Phiri.

Ngoma and Bwalya would go on to have a final say on the final outcome of the match.

Buildcon took the lead in the 69th minute through Ngoma after his initial effort was poorly cleared and Mwila’s follow-up was not also dealt with convincingly.

But Ngoma made no mistake on the third poor clearance to see Chibwe finally breached.

Bwalya added the second goal in the 76th minute when he finished off a fine cut-back from Mwila.

But Forest striker Quadri Kola struck his sides’ consolation in stoppage time when he bulldozed his way through Buildcon’s defence.

Then Mwila thought he had Buildcon’s third goal in the second minute of the 3 minutes of stoppage time but his effort was ruled-out for offside.

Forest dropped from second to fourth on 4 points after suffering their first league loss of the season.

Buildcon maintain their two point lead but Green Buffaloes are second following a 2-0 home win over Zanaco at Woodlands Stadium in Lusaka.

Robin Siame and Jack Chirwa scored for Buffaloes in the 62nd and 90th minutes respectively.