A poor season to forget
The survival games were coming thick and fast. Mighty Mufulira Wanderers made a short trip to Nchanga Stadium to face Brave Nchanga Rangers. This was a potentially fertile match for fallen giants of Zambian football.
It’s a team laden with legendary history and have won virtually any trophy winnable in the Zambian scenario . Not forgotten legendary names of footballer that have passed through that mill. But seemingly for the freshest football fans such stories appear fantasies of some sort.
But to veterans of football across the football divide, they know what Maite meant. And therefore to be fighting relegation is a bitter truth.
So then Wanderers in the lead at Nchanga Stadium. The faithfuls went into a moment of intutional belief. That yes our fellow struggling side of repute in the 60s 70s 80s and 90s could just be the armpit for survival.
But Rangers were not in the mood for charity on the day. Came second half, Maite decide to self destruct and shift the focus on the next gane against Nkana at Shinde. During that slumber Brave scored twice to leave the game 1-1 , and when the second goal came, it practically sent Maite to the Zones.
With the calibre of troops in the ranks of Nkana and Zesco United. It would be suicidal to assume Maite had a chance against the two. The realist 3 points were left at Rangers and fate decided there.
Wanderers had a pre-season target of a top-four finish but have spent the majority of the season in the relegation zone and their return to Division One was confirmed by Zesco United beating them 4-2 with Green Eagles and Nakambala Leopards winning their games against Green Buffaloes and Nchanga Rangers on the last day.
Relegation zone regulars
Mufulira Wanderers have been out of the relegation zone for just four match days out of 37 this season.
But where did it go wrong for the club? I look at some of the key factors…
Coach Soliman and the Poor Start
That is where things started going wrong and losing the first five games and drawing the sixth and again losing until in week nine when they got their first win of the season away at Nkwazi under Wilson Mwale was a very poor start. And it was always going to be brutally difficult to rise from there.
Justin Chinama appointed too late
Justin Chinama could barely have imagined he’d be involved in a relegation scrap with Mufulira Wanderers when he was appointed Assistant of the team after Soliman was shown the door.
However, had he arrived in Mufulira sooner he may well have been able to steer the team to safety.
Chinama improved Wanderers in many aspects but the time left to really make a magnificent survival plan was rather too short. And the cards were staked against Wanderers.
The Exco, only named Mufulira Wanderers boss after another poor run of results by Wilson Mwale, saw his failed tenure end with losses and draws and that win against Nkwazi. By that stage, Wanderers were still stuck in the relegation zone and Chinama was given just the remaining 17 fixtures to save them the top-flight status.
But before that, there was hope of survival after beating Konkola Blades at home in a convincing 3-0. A loss at Nakambala Leopards brought the brakes on the surge. They would then draw at home against Nchanga Rangers before going for another loss at Nkana via a 2-1 scoreline
It is at that time that the EXCO thought of swapping coaches and handing Justin Chinama the head coach position.
The first five games yielded just three points with draws – a dramatic win at home to Real Nakonde was the first win for Justin Chinama – but the former Green Eagles coach had since inspired his side to a four-game unbeaten run (their best streak since the start of the season and picking crucial points against Zanaco and Buildcon. That matched the points Wilson Mwale managed in his final 12 games with two victories against Nkwazi and Red Arrows. The other indication is that the two wins in the tenure of Wilson were all won with Chinama on the bench as Wilson was under the weather.
Too Many Coaches in one Season
The other disservice was the number of Coaches that coached the team in one season and this simply showed that the EXCO didn’t know exactly the man they wanted for the top job.
The following are the coaches that were in charge of the team for the 2017 season against their records as Mufulira Wanderers Coaches:
Soliman: P2 W0 D0 L2
Kashimoto: P2 W0 D0 L2
Wilson Mwale: P19 W3 D8 L8
Justin Chinama: P15 W6 D4 L7
The 2017 saga for Maite was a situation reminiscent of the club’s 2005 relegation when the team only won 7 games, drawn 8 and lost 15.
That Season Mufulira Wanderers scored 32 goals and allowed 52. In the 2017 Season, Mufulira Wanderers won 9, lost 13, drawn and lost 17. The team scored 38 and allowed 53 goals, almost the same number of goals they conceded in the year 2005
They have made exactly the same mistake as ten years ago by not keeping their best players Remember in 2005 Mufulira Wanderers was depleted by Green Buffaloes with the likes of Paul Chela and Bilton Musonda leaving.
Goal scoring
For a club renowned for their number nines, Mufulira Wanderers desperately lacked a goal scorer this season. Mufulira Wanderers’ leading marksmen were midfielder Guily and Rahim with a combined 15 goals – That was not enough for survival.
Goals against
As with most relegated teams, Mufulira Wanderers had problems at both ends of the pitch. While Rahim and co have been off target up front, Mufulira Wanderers is the worst defensive team in the year 2017 and have together with Real Nakonde shipped in 53 goals and there is no team that can survive with such a defense.
Once again, there has been an improvement under Justin Chinama – Mufulira Wanderers have recorded a number of clean sheets in his nine games in charge after managing just five in their previous games before he came through.
Defeats to bottom-half rivals
While Mufulira Wanderers have beaten Lusaka Dynamos and Red Arrows and twice drawn with Power Dynamos, they have lost to every team in the bottom half at least once this season, with the exception of Konkola Baldes – although a failure to beat the Super League’s rock-bottom club at City of Lusaka home and away proved costly.
The bottom-half table has proved to be significant over the course of this Super League season – Mufulira Wanderer’s fellow relegated clubs Real Nakonde and Konkola Blades also feature in the bottom three of head-to-head fixtures between sides 11th-20th.
Nchanga Rangers, in contrast, have taken six more points than Mufulira Wanderers from teams in the bottom half – and that is the reason Nchanga Rangers will be playing Super League in 2018.
Poor Signings
Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of this season for Mufulira Wanderers followers was the failure of major signings to deliver. The club got Guily from Nkana, got Benjamin Makandauko on loan an again failed to get their man Ushindi who has been attending off season trainings for a couple of seasons now. Otherwise the majority of players signed for the 2017 season were not up to task of keeping the team in the super League.
Guily Manziba is the pick of those recruits, showing flashes of what made him an integral part of Nkana’s team, but he was not going to pull the team all alone especially with Rahim disappearing at some stage.
Finally
It was a poor season and they will look back to it hoping they come back the soonest. It won’t be easy to keep players they have currently with Manziba and Rahim their talismen already being rumored getting out of Shinde stadium.
It’s been a rough road but the worst will be losing Justin Chinama because that will mean starting all over again and should that happen, I don’t see Mufulira Wanderers coming back soon.
