Azam yet to impress, blunders irk Coastal

AZAM Coach Kally Ongala said he was not totally impressed with the performance of his team despite beating Coastal Union 3-2 as his counterpart; Yusuf Chipo blamed defensive blunders for conceding cheap goals.

Substitute Iddy Nado netted a controversial goal in the added time at Azam Complex to hand the Chamazi-based giants maximum points to continue running second on leg behind leaders.

At the end of 90 minutes, four minutes were added but the referee extended it to 101 minutes to cover the lost time as the Coastal Union goalkeeper was regularly falling on the ground in a move which was interpreted as a deliberate time wasting tactic by the central referee.

As such, this was positively used by the hosting side who in the end cherished the essential home triumph while the Tanga-based side marched off the pitch with heads down for conceding a third straight defeat.

At a post- match briefing, Ongala reiterated that though his squad displayed character and determination to pick the massive win, he was not totally satisfied with the work-rate of the team, especially the striking section.

“The main problem is that when we are not in possession of the ball, we become disorganised and this is exactly an area we need to work at a lot in order to improve our performance in upcoming encounters.

“Of course, we could have played much better than the way we did but this is football… sometimes you fail to get the performance you wanted,” said Ongala who still enjoys an unbeaten run in seven games at the helm of the team.

On his part, Chipo said there are many negative things which surfaced on the day of which he could not declare in public.

“Indeed, we have lost but to be honest, a lot of irregularities have been revealed of which I cannot disclose them here,” he said as he tries to get his side on the right track in the Premier League marathon.

He also pointed out defensive blunders they committed on the day saying were positively used by Azam to source the three goals while pledging to go back on the training field to sort out the flaws.

From 12 matches, Coastal Union have won three games, drawn three matches while losing six others.

They have pocketed 12 points and they are still struggling to shrug off relegation.