The Chronicle
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
FOR a second consecutive league match, Harare giants Caps United have been aided to victory by controversial refereeing decisions that have left their opponents feeling robbed.
The latest victims to fall to Caps United are Bulawayo City who were denied two genuine goals by calls made by both assistant referees on Sunday as they went on to lose the encounter 1-0 at the National Sports Stadium.
City, third from the bottom of the table with 21 points would have moved out of the bottom four had assistant referees Albinos Zigwati and Chenai Ndoro made the right calls.
Zigwati erroneously flagged Solomon Sithole’s eighth minute header for offside. Videos captured by the league’s official broadcaster Zimpapers Television Network (ZTN) show the player running from inside to meet a perfect Lewis Ncube cross from the right.
In the 90th minute, City thought they had stolen at least a point after Dalubuhle Dlodlo ran from the blindside and lobbed home the ball after being set through by Melikhaya Ncube, only for Ndoro to raise his flag for off-side.
The entire Bulawayo City team charged at the assistant referee but it was in vain as the football rule book says, “referee’s decision is final”.
And just like that Caps United, for a second consecutive league match, had match officials to thank for aiding them to victory and out of relegation.
A fortnight ago in Gweru, the match between Whawha and Caps United had a 10-minute stoppage as the former protested against referee Piason Zvekuonera’s decision to deny them what they felt was a genuine goal by Raymond Horonga.
Zimondi reportedly had a bad day in the office and overruled assistant referee Piason Zvekuonera’s signal for Horonga’s strike that hit the under-side of the crossbar and appeared to have crossed the line on the bounce before being cleared back into play.
Whawha went on to lose 2-1 to Caps United.
With both the title and survival races being tightly contested, some referees continue to hog the limelight for the wrong reason.
The Zifa referees’ committee is on record saying they will deal with errant match officials in their bid to restore sanity and ensure fair play prevails.
Caps United, on 29 points, do not need aiding from referees to stir away from the drop zone, but the match officials who’ve handled the former champions’ last two encounters have embarrassingly exposed their incompetence.
It is the clubs’ hope that the referees committee, whose officials are at the centre of spoiling the game, will act hard on underperforming referees.
Meanwhile, championship pacesetters FC Platinum’s 10-match clean sheet run came to an end at the weekend when they survived a scare ,playing to a 1-all draw against Black Rhinos.
The draw saw FC Platinum’s eight-point lead reduced to six as second placed Dynamos and third on the table Chicken Inn won their respective games.
Dynamos left it too late to beat Tenax CS FC at Vengere while Chicken Inn narrowly edged Harare City who had a great afternoon 1-0.
Harare City enjoyed superior ball possession, passing the ball around and made sure that Chicken Inn worked for their victory.
All the bottom five teams lost their matches, meaning there were no changes to their standings.
Anchors Whawha were clobbered 3-0 on Friday by resurgent 11th placed Yadah who have amassed 31 points and are targeting a top-eight finish.
Tenax CS FC went down to Dynamos with Bulawayo City painfully falling to Caps United 1-0, while Harare City couldn’t salvage anything against Chicken Inn.
ZPC Kariba who are on position 14 were beaten 2-1 by Bulawayo Chiefs.
PSL matchday 24 results
Friday: Yadah 3-0 Whawha
Saturday: Cranborne Bullets 1-0 Ngezi Platinum, Chicken Inn 1-0 Harare City, Herentals 1-1 Highlanders, FC Platinum 1-1 Black Rhinos
Sunday: Tenax CS FC 0-2 Dynamos, Bulawayo Chiefs 2-1 ZPC Kariba, Triangle United 1-1 Manica Diamonds, Caps United 1-0 Bulawayo City
PSL TABLE
P W D L F A GD Pts
FC Platinum 24 15 6 3 36 8 28 51
Dynamos 24 13 6 5 27 11 16 45
Chicken Inn 24 13 6 5 30 21 9 45
M/Diamonds 24 8 12 4 27 19 8 36
Herentals 24 9 9 6 25 22 3 36
Highlanders 24 8 11 5 29 19 10 35
Black Rhinos 24 8 11 5 26 21 5 35
Triangle 24 9 8 7 28 24 3 35
Ngezi 24 8 9 7 28 17 11 33
Byo Chiefs 24 8 8 8 22 22 0 32
Yadah 24 7 10 7 20 20 0 31
Caps United 24 7 8 9 24 30 -6 29
C/Bullets 24 8 4 12 22 32 10 28
ZPC Kariba 24 5 8 11 11 21 -10 23
Harare City 24 4 10 10 14 22 -8 22
Byo City 24 5 6 13 17 31 -14 21
Tenax 24 5 6 12 16 39 -23 21
Whawha 24 5 4 15 21 44 -23 19
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Article Source: The Chronicle