Yanga close gap on Simba

        Dar es Salaam. Young Africans on the rampage. This is how one can describe the Jangwani Street giants’ victory over Mbeya City at the Uhuru Stadium yesterday.

They inflicted a painful 5-0 defeat on the Mbeya-based team in the Mainland Premier League match to move to within touching distance of their arch-rivals Simba.

It was an Obrey Chirwa and Emmanuel Martin show with the former grabbing a hat-trick and the latter striking twice to give Yanga fans an ideal weekend gift.

In Njombe, in-form Azam FC squeezed a 1-0 win over hosts Njombe Mji at Sabasaba Stadium, while Mtibwa Sugar went down 1-0 to Kagera Sugar in another league match at the Manungu Stadium in Morogoro.

The results mean Yanga remain third in the league table with 20 points, two behind leaders Simba, who beat Tanzania Prisons 1-0 at the Sokoine Memorial Stadium in Mbeya on Saturday.

Simba and second-placed Azam tie on 22 points but the Msimbazi Reds are ahead on goal difference.

Yanga made a slow start at the Uhuru Stadium before Chirwa broke the deadlock in the 20th minute, capitalizing on defensive mix-up to tap in the match-opener.

Celebrations that greeted the goal had hardly died down when Martin doubled the hosts’ lead in the 23rd minute for a 2-0 half time lead.

In the 48th minute, referee awarded Yanga a penalty after Raphael Daud was brought down by goalkeeper Fikiri Bakari in the penalty box.

Chirwa made no mistake with the spot kick, sending the Mbeya goalie the wrong way to score the third goal for George Lwandamina’s men.

The Zambian forward came into the picture again in the 59th minute, this time off a pass by Ibrahim Ajibu before Martin hit the final pin on Mbeya City coffin in the 80th minute.

The goal was initiated by Gadiel Michael, who cleverly beat two defender outside the penalty box.