A youthful Highlanders side led by 22-year-old Prince Dube was beaten by city neighbors Chicken Inn FC in a friendly match played at Barbourfields stadium on Sunday.
Chickenn In won the match 4-0, although the scoreline is not a true reflection of what transpired on the pitch. It was an evenly balanced match which needed experience to separate the two sides.
An experienced Chicken Inn side coming from a four-team pre-season tournament in Malawi capitalised on Highlanders side’s inexperience to cruise to a 4-0 victory.
Highlanders fielded a team comprising of players from the first team and the developmental side Bosso 90 while Chicken Inn named a very strong squad.
Chicken Inn got their goals through Sipho Ndlovu who headed in Kadonzvo’s corner kick in the 37th minute, Innocent Mucheneka who came from the bench to doubled the Gamecocks’ lead 10 minutes into the second half, and Nicole Mutatiwa who grabbed a brace for the Gamecocks, scoring his first goal in the 83rd minute and the second on the stroke of fulltime.
Coach Bekithemba Ndlovu had this to say:
“The boys played very well, displayed good soccer. The mixture was good for the technical team and the young boys played very well. We’re in the process of pre-season. Fitness wise we are not yet there and have to work on that. Of course, we wanted to win but as the technical team we were looking at the technical aspects of the game like technique, movement of the players and fitness,”.