A brace each for hitman Stanie Davie and midfielder Chimwemwe Idana were enough to guarantee 3 points for the Central Bankers on Sunday afternoon at Bingu National Stadium.
Playing in front of their vocal fans, Silver Strikers led with two goals by half time. A goal each from Davie and Idana gave the hosts a comfortable lead.
Davie scored his first goal of the season after a quick play that was initiated by Charles Thom in goals. The counter attack materialised after Mark Fodya curled a left footed cross which landed on the feet of the forward who made no mistake but to put the Bankers ahead.
After the goal, Red Lions showed hunger to equalise but the hosts were always on alert.
At 34 minutes, Davie was close to finding his second goal of the day and of the season after he got a pass from Idana but Red Lions’ goalkeeper Juwaya stretched to force a corner.
With 4 minutes to the break, the hosts got a penalty which came after a handball by Red Lions defence. Idana took the penalty to bring the score to 2-0 by the end of the first half.
The Zomba based soldiers were caught off guard at the beginning of the second half as just a minute into the second half Idana scored his second of the day after Red Lions defenders failed to clear a corner kick.
Minutes later, Red Lions brought in Innocent Makalano for Fergason Mtondo but the change did not yield so much as at 64 minutes Stanie Davie hammered his second for the day after he headed home a cross from Patrick Macheso who twisted and turned to give himself space to take a well targeted cross to Davie.
Silver head coach Pieter de Jongh made changes by bringing in Atusaye Nyondo, Gift Chunga, Chinsisi Maonga and Tatenda M’balaka who came in for Patrick Macheso, Zebron Kalima, Duncan Nyoni and Stanie Davie.
Four minutes before full time, substitute Davie Major pulled one back for the visitors after some jittery defending from the hosts.
After the match, de Jongh said he was happy with the result as his team continues to display good football.
“This is one of the good games but we still have 27 games to play. We have played 3 good games but we still want to do better. Today’s game was exciting but we have missed so many opportunities today. We could have scored 6 to 7 goals but we are happy to win. We return to our training base as we look forward to the next match”, said de Jongh.
Idana was voted man of the match his second since the start of the season.
This is the second win for the Bankers from three games played.
