Gunners, Tafic in relegation quagmire

All attention this weekend is on Sunday’s beMOBILE Premier League clash between Township Rollers and Mochudi Centre Chiefs scheduled for the National Stadium at 4pm.

Rightly so, because the two teams command impassioned patronage that will see throngs of blood-thirsty supporters cluster to witness the one side that could go into the next week ahead of the sixteen-league pack. Yet the real battle for survival will have already taken place some 24 hours earlier, in a combat zone located over 400 kilometres to the north.

Surely the Francistown Stadium will be turned into another Golgotha when perennial relegation escapologists Extension Gunners and Tafic clash in what will be a somewhat emotional affair. The two sides sit precariously at the deeper end of the premiership’s log standings, and a loss for either one will surely be a knell summoning them to the dusty, rocky and gravelly grounds of the National First Division. It sounds too bad to be true, but Gunners and Tafic will henceforth find it difficult to disentangle themselves from the clutches of relegation should either of them fall this weekend. Not that a draw will give any of them a lifeline – if they are serious about remaining in the plum and splendour of premier league football, they had better be plotting nothing but victory for their looming encounter.

The numbers no longer favour them; the political and financial turmoil besieging the clubs is not helping either. It gets worse when their tens of thousands of their supporters are no longer filling up the stadiums at their matches, as will again happen at the less than 5 000 capacity venue hosting their match this Saturday. It is unfathomable that these giants of Botswana football are where they are – painstakingly busy fighting for survival while their peers in Rollers, Chiefs and Gaborone United are gloriously outwitting each other for the crown. They are again not helped by the unusual surge for the top half of the table by clubs that have just been promoted to the elite league when most had expected them to be where these two giants are. Wonder Sporting at position six with 31 points are not making a quick return to the National First Division; FC Satmos just below them with 28 points are neither relegating. Perhaps eleventh-placed Orapa United with 20 points might be the side they are looking at to overtake, but even a win for Gunners, who have 16 points at position 14, will not take them above the Orapa lads even if the latter lose their duel against another relegation-threatened Notwane  at the Itekeng Stadium on Saturday. It will even be trickier if Notwane wins that encounter.

As for Tafic, rock-bottom with 15 points, any more losses are unthinkable with only ten rounds of games to play in the league. Although recent history between the two sides favours the Francistown side, Gunners have over the years mastered the art of escaping the axe and this weekend might just be the beginning of another of their escapologist acts. They could be motivated by their last victory against high-placed Wonder whom they beat 1-0 in Lobatse, while Tafic are coming off a 5-0 drubbing by UF Santos, a team just above them at position 15 with 16 points. Two games before then, Tafic had also lost 1-2 against Wonder and BMC in December. It has not been a good run for them and if they fail to beat Gunners, another side close to them in the relegation quagmire, then it will take a miracle of Biblical proportions to see them survive the axe.

Perhaps their home ground status might just be what they need this weekend. If there has ever been a time that they needed their supporters, it is this Saturday. Not that the Lobatse side can do without theirs – should both sets of supporters show up in their numbers, then the atmosphere could just turn this duel into the match of the weekend where the loser gets a one-way ticket to hell. Yes, the two teams may not make it back to the premier league should they allow themselves to drop. Given the fierce competition of recent seasons at the lower league, coming back could be more difficult than when the trio of Rollers, Chiefs and Gaborone United made it. Given the poor support the two sides command nowadays, it is difficult to see them retain their support base while at the first division, unlike Rollers, United and Chiefs who still attracted throngs of supporters to their dusty grounds.

Yet Gunners’ coach Mike Sithole has vowed that his team will not relegate, despite accepting that he was leading a side of young and inexperienced players. He has recently received a boost when he registered a stalwart in Musa Ohilwe; and since they lamented the dearth of goal-scoring talent, they could now be happy to have on-loan Pako Modikwa and Francis Kanda who both joined the club this January from BDF XI. Modikwa scored their winner on debut against Wonder, ending the  club's string of losses that spanned weeks. Gunners had last tasted victory in November last year when they narrowly beat Notwane 1-0, a club that would later beat them by the same margin on December 18. Another of their scarce victories last year was when they shocked themselves on November 9, beating Wonder 4-0 at the SSKB Stadium. Before then, one had to look as far back as that September 13 night when they beat Rollers 1-0 in a season opener that also saw the National Stadium host its first premier league match in six years.

Then, there was a lot of hope that Gunners were in for the big time having just come off a splendid display in the Barclays Kabelano Charity Cup where they beat Rollers in the semi final and lost fighting against Chiefs in the final. Yet they still remain a club that plays exciting football, let down only by their poor finishing.
But now that their Zambian striker Shabby Nsongamali from Konkola Blades has arrived, there could be a glimmer of hope as their survival phase begins in earnest.

Amid disruptions caused by rain, the Zambian has been training with the team already, and could feature on Saturday. Tafic on the other hand need fervent prayers.

Much of their undoing has not necessarily been on the pitch, with internal management fights perhaps spilling on to the players whose spirits have not really been high. Yet they could spring surprises after reportedly signing up to ten players this January window, among them two from Zimbabwe. Coach Darlington Dodo is however not sure he will use the players this weekend but he is adamant they will continue their victories against Gunners.

The two last played in October last year when the Francistown side triumphed 2-0. They also won the corresponding fixture last season 1-0, making them a serious threat to Gunners’ hopes of rising this weekend. Dodo is also concerned that rains have been disruptive to their preparations since Tuesday, but believes they will overcome their opponents.

When the two sides meet, they will already be aware of the results involving their relegation mates UF Santos, who play Gaborone United in Molepolole this Friday. A win for Santos would make the Francistown Stadium assignment even tougher, as the loser will leave the venue skating on thin ice.