Malawi Wanderers, Bullets set to kick-start Malawi Super League

Some of Southern Africa’s oldest football institutions, Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Wanderers, meet at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre on Saturday afternoon to mark the start of the domestic season in Malawi.

Wanderers have defeated their arch-rivals Bullets once in the last nine years, hence the derby has of late not been a spectacle as expected.

Bullets and Wanderers were formed in the 1960s and they are meeting in the 72nd edition of the derby.

Nonetheless, a huge crowd in red for the TNM Super League defending champions Bullets and blue for Wanderers is expected to throng Kamuzu Stadium. The facility is as old as the derby itself.

Bullets, under the guidance of quiet Zimbabwean tactician Kalisto Pasuwa, are set on a 16th title defence whereas Wanderers have  a remote dream of claiming their eighth league title.

Wanderers have not done the best of the business on the transfer market due to a lack of a financial muscle and administrative squabbles; hence the team has had to rely on signing rejects such as defender Miracle Gabeya and striker Chiukepo Msowoya from Bullets.

Msowoya, the record Super League scorer, has shown a lot of promise in the pre-season since being ejected from Bullets and he is expected to lead Wanderers attack alongside Vincent Nyangulu.

Wanderers technical director Eddingtone Ng’onamo has been recalled to lead the team in interim capacity, stepping in for sacked Bob Mpinganjira.

The Nomads, as Wanderers are called, have been far from impressive in the pre-season having finished second in Pamtsetse Bonanza held last weekend in Lilongwe. In contrast, Bullets won the NBS Charity Shield weeks ago.

It is all new dawn for Bullets who released seasoned campaigners such as Nelson Kangunje, Chimango Kaira, Msowoya, Bright Munthali, Zicco Mkanda, Pilirani Zonda and Dalitso Sailesi before Gabeya and goalkeeper Ernest Kakhobwe followed suit.

Pasuwa has started rebuilding a new team with reserve side graduates such as Lanjesi Nkhoma, Clever Mkungula and Patrick Nyangulu as the backbone.

Experienced captain John Lanjesi has also returned from a long-term injury alongside left-back Precious Sambani whereas Hassan Kajoke and Nigerian Babatunde Adepoju remain the team’s focal point in attack.

Speaking ahead of the match, the Zimbabwean Pasuwa said he was expecting Wanderers to come with their guns blazing in the derby.

We are playing Mighty Wanderers in the Blantyre derby. We are facing an experienced side, which is one of the big teams in the land. As a coach, we also wanted to teach the boys to know the true meaning of a derby by knocking sense in them and some of the players who just joined us from other teams,” Pasuwa told Bullets website.

“Yes, we are the defending champions and we have revamped the team, which we thought was old and you know what it is when you start to rebuild. You can’t expect results now and then because it’s a process, but we will try our best and we hope may be with time we will get there.”

The derby is the highest profile match in the domestic league, which was established in 1986 and involves 16 teams with mobile network service provider TNM as the sponsor.


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