Maramba Stars beat Eastlands to revenge Cup loss
By Trinity Dunga Kays | January 20, 2020
A goal from Humphrey Walila handed Maramba a 1-0 win over town rivals Eastlands in the week 14 derby encounter at St Raphael’s Secondary school Grounds in Maramba on Saturday.
The victory got Maramba into the top four blaket making it the fourth team from Livingstone in the top four bracket replacing New Monze Swallows on the FAZ Division One Southern Province log table.
Eastlands, on the other hand, will look to bounce back in their next game which is the last game in round one as they welcome there former division two rivals, the stubborn Youths, Livingstone Youth Football Academy at Bharati sports complex.
The game at Saint, was one of the greatest footballing spectacles in recent times in the tourist capital with a lot of chances on goal from Eastlands as Maramba sat back most of the time relying on counter-attacks.
The visiting side did start the better of the two teams but proved to be wasteful in front goal. They had a lot of well-worked passing moves which could have resulted in goals but failed to beat Changufu in goal.
The Armyworms continued to control the opening half but could not break the deadlock before the break.
The second half saw the hosts come back as a different team, playing better football as they gained more possession of the ball, but their decision making in the final third was also poor which saw them really unable to trouble the Malawian goalkeeper.
While the second half produced little goalmouth action compared to the first half, the home side produced a surprise attack that found Eastland’s defenders ball watching as Walila went past two central defenders to slot home the opener in the 68th minute.
He would have scored his second minutes later but Alick Mbuzi was alert and could not be beaten for the second time.
There was a moment of drama as the Eastlands standing Coach Bosco pocked the goalscorer Walila when the ball went out of touch near the visitors bench as Walila was chasing it then when coming back and he went down and Maramba Stars Team Manager run to Bosco reacting to the incident ready for an exchange of blows but the visitors bench intervened with Mike Chiyota calming the situation down as fans jumped the wire to invade the pitch towards Eastland’s bench but found police on roadblock.
After the player was attended the situation calmed and the Eastland stand-in coach and Stars team Manager were both sent off for misbehaving and the game resumed
Maramba Stars produced a solid defensive display to hold onto their 1-0 lead and claim a revenge win over Eastlands who beat them in the Provincial Cup game.