Africa-Press – Tanzania. SIMBA remain confident to retain Premier League throne despite losing their first match to Mbeya City saying the marathon is far from over with many matches to play.
The Msimbazi Street Reds surrendered their 10-match unbeaten run of the campaign on Monday after losing 1-0 loss to a 10-man Mbeya City at Sokoine Stadium in Mbeya from a 20th -minute goal netted Paul Nonga.
The outcome was a salt on fresh wound for Simba as they currently trail league leaders Young Africans with 8 points, but the defending champions have one game in hand.
the match, Simba’s Media and Communications Manager Ahmed Ally called the club’s members not to lose hopes after the setback maintaining that they are still key title contenders in this season.
We are in the 12th round of the campaign with about 20 matches to play and at this juncture, you cannot inform Simba fans that we have given up the race to the championship.
“Last season, we lost three games but still went on to win the title, until now, we have just lost one match and who knows, we may never lose again…what I want to emphasize is that this is part of the game,” he insisted.
He, however, conceded the defeat saying their opponents deserved the victory and were a better side than them saying the way they scored is the same as they do to other teams and that their philosophy worked for them.
Moreover, the communications manager revealed that they are not bothered to see their traditional rivals Yanga flying higher at the peak of the league log saying they are used to see them at the top in early period of the season and that Simba’s time to take control of the league is yet to come.
On his part, Nonga who scored the winner for his side admitted that it was a very difficult match especially after losing one man as they had to double their work-rate throughout the tense match.
“Our game plan worked pretty well in the first half something which helped us to score the winner and after being reduced to 10-man, the coach told us how to play and we managed to protect the lead until the final whistle,” he said.
Adding, Nonga disclosed that his calmness and composure inside the box before scoring was what brought the difference saying it was a tight angle to get a goal.
It was his fourth goal of the season and he insisted that his number one priority is to help Mbeya City win matches while other things like claiming the top goal scorer accord will automatically come as the season rages on.
His coach Mathias Lulle said their game scouting played a big role to the remarkable win while disclosing that the outcome was made possible due to ample preparations.
“They began with a 4:2:3:1 system and we started with a 4:3:3 formula but later we changed to 4:4:2 which worked perfectly well for us as we controlled the midfield section where they deployed two players Jonas Mkude and Sadio Kanoute,” he said.
Again, Lulle said finishing the match with ten men did not affect their plans as they already had plan B while insisting that many teams should expect to suffer from them this season.
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