Hilltop wins MDFA Castel Challenge Cup

By Victor Stephan…….

Hilltop has emerged champions for this year’s Castel Challenge Cup for Mzuzu District Football Association after beating Bwabwa United 3-1 in a final played at Lupaso ground on Saturday.

Bwabwa United was the first to score in the first half capitalizing on their dominance in the early minutes, a penalty that came 5 minutes into the second half allowed Hilltop to equalize before scoring another at 55 minutes with the third goal coming in dying minutes, so it ended Bwabwa United 1 Hilltop 3.

Edward Mbizi coach for Bwabwa United conceded the defeat partially attributing it to poor officiation.

“My players played well today, we have to accept the defeat and we have to work on our mistakes we were complacent in the last half but officiation played a role in our downfall we scored a clear goal but they said it was an offside while they gave them a dubious penalty and an offside goal,” Mbizi said.

Mayamiko Sakamu described the game as a tough one promising to work on coordination.

“We started badly and came on in the last half we struggled in the midfield and lacked composure after the pep talk things worked and hoping that we will do well playing against super league teams,” Sakamu said.

Mzuzu District Football Association General Secretary Alphack Mkandawire praised the teams for their discipline.

“As an association, we are delighted with how teams have performed in the cup, we hope they will do the same in other games after this,” said Mkandawire.

For being the champions Hilltop will pocket K1 000 000 and will represent the district at the national level while finalists Bwabwa United will go away with K400 000.