By Duncan Mlanjira
Mighty Be Forward Wanderers returned from Lilongwe bruised as they lost 0-2 to their hosts, Blue Eagles at Nankhaka to surrender their spot at the summit after their rivals and defending champions Nyasa Bullets beat Mzuni FC 3-2 at Kamuzu Stadium.
However, the race is too close to call as the two arch rivals are separated by one point (Bullets at 49 and Wanderers at 48) from equal number of games at 23 each with eight more games to wrap up the season.
This will probably be a very close race right at the finish with another contender, third-placed Blue Eagles, coming close by with five points away the leaders and four behind Wanderers.
Last year’s final third-place winners Silver Silvers have 41 points from 25 games and are 4th while Kamuzu Barracks are 5th with 39 points also from 25 games.
So both Wanderers and Bullets have eight games left to wrap up the season and no one can afford to drop any point from this point.
Others gunning for a spot in the top eight to qualify for a place in the Airtel Top 8 Cup are 6th-placed Civil Sporting on 37 points from 25 matches, 7th-placed TN Stars also with 37 points from 24 games and Tigers FC on position eight with 32 points from 24 games.
Meanwhile, the race to avoid relegation is also a case of scrutiny that has last year’s team of the moment Masters Security anchoring the table with a meager 17 points from 23 games.
Masters, who lost 0-1 to Savenda Chitipa United at home on Saturday, have really surprisingly struggled this time around though they caused a stir last season in which they ended an enviable 4th position.
For their remaining eight games, Masters will be chasing debutantes Ntopwa FC on 15th position, Savenda Mponela United on 14th, Mzuni FC on 13th and constant survivor, 12th-placed Dwangwa United, in order to escape relegation.
Ntopwa have 20 points from 24 games, Mponela at 21 from 23 games, Mzuni at 22 from 25 games and Dwangwa at 23 from 24 games.
In Sunday’s match against Mzuni, Bullets’ Hassan Kajoke scored a brace and their winning goal came from Chimwemwe Idana Haile Mzuni scored through Taniel Mhango and Steve Madimba.
Wanderers lost from the goals scored by Foster Bitoni and Schumacher Kuwali, son to former Flames great international goalkeeper Schubert Kuwali.
Tigers FC displaced TN Stars on 8th position by beating Mzuni 2-1 with goals from Chikaiko Batson and Kondwani Chilembwe with Colleen Nkhulambe scoring the consolation for the visitors.
The following is the log table (numbers in blackets denotes last season’s final standings while * is for promoted teams):
. P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1.(1) Nyasa Bullets 23 14 7 2 50 13 37 49
2.(2) Wanderers 23 14 6 3 40 13 27 48
3.(11) Blue Eagles 24 12 8 4 34 23 11 44
4.(3) Silver Strikers 25 11 8 6 31 26 4 41
5.(6) K. Barracks 25 10 9 6 19 15 4 39
6.(5) Civil Sporting 25 11 4 10 32 26 6 37
7.(9) TN Stars 24 11 4 9 25 32 -7 37
8.(10) Tigers FC 24 8 8 8 20 20 0 32
9.(13) Moyale 22 8 7 7 25 25 0 31
10.(7) Karonga Utd 24 8 6 10 30 33 3 30
11.(*) Chitipa United 24 6 10 8 26 31 -5 28
12.(12) Dwangwa 24 6 5 13 25 42 -17 23
13.(8) Mzuni 25 4 10 11 20 32 -12 22
14.(*) Mponela 23 5 6 12 19 31 -12 21
15.(*) Ntopwa 24 6 2 16 26 39 -13 20
16.(4)Masters 23 3 8 12 18 39 -21 17