Africa-Press – Tanzania. YOUNG African goalkeepers’ coach Razak Siwa has said that they are still determined to win the Mainland Premier League title, despite the slim chances.
The Jangwani Street outfit continued to keep their slim chances of winning the league title alive, as they beat JKT Tanzania 2-0 at the Jamhuri Stadium in Dodoma on Wednesday.
First half goals by Yocouba Sogne and Tuisila Kisinda were enough to earn Yanga maximum points as the league title race heads down to wire.
Following the results, Yanga have now tied on 61 points with league leaders and defending champions Simba but the latter have superior goal difference.
Yanga have played 29 matches while Simba have played 25 outings, meaning the Reds have four matches in hand.
On the other hand, JKT Tanzania dropped down to 14th place of the log after registering 33 points in 30 games. Shortly after the match, Siwa praised his charges for taking maximum points away.
The Kenyan said they have not thrown a towel, insisting that they will keep fighting until the end. “We are pleased to collect three points and we are still very much in the title race…we have not given up and we have put plans to win all the remaining games.
We do not look at who we will be playing with; all we want is to win,” he said. Commenting on their performance on Wednesday in Dodoma, Siwa noted that the team’s technical bench is impressed with the quality that the lads displayed. “We thank God for an outstanding performance that the players displayed.
They delivered as we planned and the most important thing was getting three key points.” “Everything went as planned and everything will go as planned.
We told players to keep their feet on the ground and take each coming match as a final,” Siwa said. Wednesday’s victory broke a series of heartbreaking results for Yanga, as the Jangwani Street lads were held to a barren draw away to Namungo FC at the Kassim Majaliwa Stadium in Ruangwa, Lindi.
Prior to the match against Namungo, Yanga had suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Azam FC at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam, complicating their chances of ending a three season wait to win the league title.
The victory was also the first for newly hired Tunisian tactician Nasreddine Nabi, who took over from Burundian Cedric Kaze.
JKT Tanzania Head Coach, Abdallah Mahmoud conceded the defeat, saying that they have themselves to blame. He said that his charges had an opportunity to score but they failed to utilise the few goal scoring opportunities created.
“We thank the Almighty God that we safely completed the game. I would like to congratulate Yanga for winning. Of course, we got scoring chances but we did not use them well.
Regardless, I would still like to thank my players for not giving up a fight,” he said.
