Antipas feels the heat as Chicken Inn struggle

Sport
THE Chicken Inn executive is worried about the bad patch that the club has hit in recent weeks in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League

THE Chicken Inn executive is worried about the bad patch that the club has hit in recent weeks in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League an indication that pressure is mounting on head coach Joey Antipas after he lost his seventh game of the season at the weekend to Caps United in Harare.

THANDIWE MOYO SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Under Antipas, Chicken Inn collected eight points in June out of a possible 12 and last month lost all their three matches, registering their last win on June 22 against Hwange at the Colliery.

After beating Hwange they held champions Dynamos to a goalless draw at Barbourfields before they went on to lose three times in a row.

Responding to reports that Antipas has been given a three-match ultimatum, club secretary Tavengwa Hara yesterday said, although they were not happy with the results, they were not pressing the panic button yet.

“We are not pressing the panic button as yet. We have hit a bad patch, but we are hoping that they will come right. We are worried that the results are not coming, but are not panicking yet,” Hara said.

Chicken Inn are on position 10 on the log standings with 20 points, 12 shy of log leaders Highlanders and 10 ahead of log anchors Chiredzi.

Hara said they knew that the results will be coming and have not given the former Motor Action gaffer any ultimatums.

“We have not had our meeting yet, but for now all I can say is that we have not given him any ultimatum,” he said.

In two months Chicken Inn have found the net four times and that was in their 1-1 draw against Shabanie Mine, 1-0 win against Chiredzi, 1-0 win against Hwange and 1-2 loss to Caps United.

Chicken Inn were without their captain Danny “Deco” Phiri who confirmed yesterday that he had sustained a knee injury, but could start training this week.

The last time Chicken Inn hit a bad spell was last year between July 5 and October 26 where in 11 matches they won once, drew five times and lost the same number of games.

It was at the time that Mandla Mpofu, now Bantu Rovers assistant, was said to have quit the club with Antipas taking over.

Chicken Inn was built into a competitive outfit by the late Adam Ndlovu in 2012 and capped off a fine run by winning the NetOne Charity Shield in honour of the Warriors legend last year, but Antipas has not been lucky.

Some, in the Bulawayo football community, blame the coach for destroying the culture of the club by bringing a number of players from Harare, including his assistant Prince Matore, instead of finding locals to assist him and players from Chicken Inn’s juniors.

He has also taken in a number of former Motor Action players like Bheki Ncube, Passmore Bernard and Clemence Matawu and has seen the departure of Kuda Mahachi, Felix Chindungwe and Njabulo Nyoni while Phiri has been relegated to the bench.

Last week, they signed a clearly out of shape Last Chibwiro, who failed dismally against Caps United when brought in later in the second half at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.