18 Feb ”FOOL ME ONCE, NOT TWICE.” SAYS MALEMBE
“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” says an old adage.
The adage best describes Forest Rangers’ reaction against Mutondo Stars on Saturday.
Mutondo got the better of the ABSA Cup 2023 champions beating them 3-2 at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in the reverse fixture.
But this time around Fole Malembe refused to be fooled twice by Mutondo as they came from behind for the first time this season to secure maximum points at home.
With MTN Super League returning,this is the kind of start the Mwenya Chipepo-led technical bench was anticipating as they overcame Mutondo 2-1.
The ‘Evergreen’ Mutondo took the lead inside the opening 16 minutes courtesy of Deborah Mavambo goal.
After conceding,Forest took the game to Mutondo with Jack Chirwa and Clement Mulenga both trying their luck from afar but goalkeeper Gwezani Banda was equal to the task.
Midfielder Tiki Chiluba almost opened his Forest account but shot wide on 40 minutes.
On resumption, Chipepo rested the duo of debutants Enock Bwanga and Mulenga for Eric Chomba and Lazarous Chishimba respectively.
And the changes made a difference as Chomba’s delivery found another debutant Jimoh Wasiu,who scored a cracker to level matters.
Moments later,Nigerian Wasiu thought he had scored a brace but his effort was disallowed for offside.
The home side got the winner in the 75 th minute through Chishimba.
Chishimba’s goal went in and curved out and it had to take referee Charles Ngandwe to confirm before finally awarding it.
The goal took Chishimba’s tally to five goals for the season.
With Forest in control,Chipepo also handed Ian Sindaye his debut unleashing him for Quadri Kola.
Mutondo tried to salvage a point but Forest held on for three points in-front of their fans.
Chipepo said in a post-match interview that he was happy with the overall performance of the team.
“At half time we told them not to panic because of the goal they conceded, and you could see everyone fighting in the second half, all I can say is I am happy with the overall performance of the team. They fought and scored more than one goal which hasn’t happened in a long time,” he said.
The result pushed Forest from 11th to ninth position on the log with 27 points.
Forest will have to put up an even better performance this weekend when they face Nkana in Kitwe.
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