Moyo stands face to face with Police XI axe
Back to back losses in the beMobile Premiership have placed Police XI head coach Maxwell Moyo under immense pressure to deliver a positive result. His face was all anger and frustration when he flatly refused to speak to the media at the end of his side’s 2-1 beating at the hands of Green Lovers on Saturday.
Moyo remained rooted to his seat throughout the entire 90 minutes with assistant coach Maitumelo Letlaamoreng doing all the shouting. The cops came into the game gunning for maximum points after losing against Orapa United, Miscellaneous and Mochudi Centre Chiefs. This was after an impressive start to the campaign which saw them top of the standings at one point.Their hopes of returning to fine form were extinguished as early as the third minute when Lovers drew first blood through Matthews Moruti, who headed home superbly feeding off a cross by Kudakwashe Manuwere. But Tapiwa Gadibolae would later level matters for Police from close range, thus provoking Lovers who quickly responded in five minutes when Moatlhodi Ralesotla combined well with Rentse Keakabetse to set up Tumo Keiketlile to score from outside the box in restoring their lead.
The second half saw Lovers bossing Police for most parts of the game and their usually leaky defence remained resolute as they held on to win the game. Moyo shook his head in disbelief as he walked towards the dressing room and his assistant Letlaamoreng rescued him by agreeing to speak to the media. “We lost today and we accept defeat. We let in two silly goals and we were chasing the game throughout,” he told BG Sport. Letlaamoreng did not want to talk about why he was doing all the talking while Moyo was seated and said that they have a good working relationship.
Police General Manager Jonas Basupi said in a separate interview that it was too early to press panic buttons, yet he added that something needed to be fixed nonetheless. “Management met with the technical team this week to come up with solutions to get out of the recent slump,” he said, declining to divulge the exact details of the meeting and stressing that Moyo’s job remains safe. If the team continues to struggle Moyo might see himself axed, and become the fifth coach to part company with his elite league team this season.
His team has their work cut out in the next month - three consecutive fixtures against rampant log leaders Township Rollers. The two begin their first duel this weekend in the first leg of the Mascom Top 8 quarter final. The next game will be a league encounter followed by the Mascom Top 8 quarter final’s second leg. Any failure in these encounters may just spring the Police XI management in to action to reveal exactly what the team manager means by saying ‘something has to be fixed.”
