By MICHAEL MIYOBA
Red Arrows assistant coach Kalililo Kakonje believes the Airmen are back in the title race after last Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Kabwe Warriors in a FAZ Super League Week-21 fixture played at Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka.
Kakonje said Arrows will fight until the end of the season to achieve the objectives of defending the FAZ Super League.
He described the win over Kabwe Warriors over the weekend as a very big relief after a bad patch where they recorded five straight defeats before a draw and a win against Kansanshi Dynamos and Kabwe Warriors in the last two games.
“We have been looking for a win for a very long time, we had not scored a goal in a very long time as well. We managed to score a goal against Warriors and kept our second clean sheet in a row that is a big morale booster for us going forward,” Kakonje said.
He said the win on Saturday presents a turning point for the Airmen who are seventh on the log with 31 points.
“We had been searching for a win and the belief started coming back slowly into the team when we got the away draw to Kansasnhi Dynamos and against Warriors we could see even more belief in the boys so I think the game against Warriors is a real turn around for us,” Kakonje said.
“We can say we are back in the title chase. I don’t think we were written off after the bad patch but I think we have never said that we will shy away from our target that we set at the beginning of the season,” he said.
Kakonje however expressed concern with the team’s failure to get more goals after scoring just two goals while conceding 12 goals in the last seven games.
Kakonje said Arrows has a squad capable of winning trophies. “We will continue to encourage the boys. The belief is coming back into the team. The fighting spirit in the game against Warriors can take us anywhere so we continue preparing and taking a game at a time,” he said.
