Bullets Reserve, Extreme FC battle for FDH cup final spot

By Antony Isaiah Jr

The first semifinals of the prestigious FDH Bank Cup will be played today at Bingu National Stadium as Nyasa Big Bullets Reserve welcome the Mchinji based team, Extreme FC.

The junior people’s team started their journey with a tough game against Mighty Tigers before beating another tnm Super League giants, Red Lions in the round of 16.

Enos Chatama’s boys registered the famous victory over the Super League second placed Blue Eagles at Kamuzu Stadium as Lyton Chinong’one leave it late to pluck Eagles wings.

On the other hand, Extreme FC beat Mtsiriza United, The Boys, Kadona FB before sending out Changalume Barracks in the quarterfinals phase.

Last season, the two teams face each other in the K2.5 million Aubrey Dimba Trophy and the Blantyre based side emerged a 2-1 victorious.

However, Nyasa Big Bullets Reserve hero of the quarterfinals, Lyton Chinong’one who netted the winner in the added minutes, triggering tears for the Cops and tears of joy for the people’s team warns his teammates against complacency ahead of Saturday’s semi-final clash against Extreme FC.

Speaking Nyasa Big Bullets media team, Chinong’one says Nyasa Big Bullets Reserve players should not underrate Mchinji based team.

“What I noted is that when praise pulls in others become big-headed and that eventually it can destroy or destruct a player. For us to continue doing good on the pitch, we need to keep working even harder so that we can play better than we did [against Blue Eagles].

“Personally, I won’t stop because I have helped my team to reach the quarter-finals. The whole team must work hard and put more effort to take us to the finals. Everybody in the team must not feel satisfied but aim to achieve more.”

Nyasa Big Bullets Reserve boss, Enos Chatama has predicted a tough game, saying they are coming from far.

“It will be a tough game as you know that we are coming from far and our opponents [Extreme] have also done a tremendous Job reaching this far and it won’t be an easy game.

“We played them last year in the Aubrey Dimba Trophy and we won 1-0 but the dimension of the game has completely changed. They have improved so much, and we all know how they have been faring in the past games. We have a completely changed team that we used last year.

“I can’t say much because football isn’t usually played on radio or any media platform but on the ground, what i can say regarding this game is that,It’s a tough game we have to fight to the end.Extreme are not an ordinary team for them to reach this far they have shown courage and determination,”Chatama said.

His counterpart, Austin Ajawa said his boys are totally ready for the game. He said his charges have come from far, so they will do everything to book their place in the finals of the FDH Bank Cup.

“As Extreme FC, we are very ready for this encounter, both physically and mentally. Of course, there are many challenges in football bit our boys know how to perform in this particular games and we have no challenges towards the pitch [Artificial turf]” said Ajawa.

He added that their goal is to reach the finals of the FDH Bank Cup.