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You can talk about the financial scandals that have rocked the ‘people’s team’ Bakili Bullets but the club seem to be bent on making more history after becoming the first Malawian club to reach the league stages of the Caf Champions League competition.
This week, the Bullets will be out to crown themselves Super League champions for a seventh consecutive time as they take on Dwasco and Civo in two tough away assignments. Victories in both games will see the Bullets running away with the title with five games in hand.
Enjoying themselves at the summit of the Bakili Muluzi Super League (BMSL) log table with 52 points from 21 games, the Bullets just need five points to reach where their closest pursuers MTL Wanderers and Silver Strikers cannot reach. In the event of winning all their remaining games, the nomads can reach a maximum of 56 points 53 while Silver can only get to as far as 53 points.
Both the nomads and bankers and indeed the rest of the teams in the K16.5m sponsored league know it is over for them. Wanderers coach Eddington Ng’onamo confessed after the team’s 1-0 win over Mafco last week that the best his boys could achieve was the second slot.
“We just have to make sure we win all our remaining five games and finish second to Bakili Bullets,” Ng’onamo told this reporter after the game.
With such confessions, the only remaining question is when will the Bullets crown themselves champions?
The task of crowning themselves champions with 15 points to squander seems an easy one for the Bullets considering their good run in the league and the exposure they have been gaining through participation in the Caf Champions League where they have managed to silence continental heavyweights like Zanaco, Orlando Pirates and Africa Sports.
Chitowe Stadium is indeed a no-go zone but with the presence of players like Dick Malidadi, Grant Lungu, Fischer Kondowe, Maupo Msowoya and the other Bullets’ sophisticates, Dwangwa is likely to host unwelcome visitors.
But Bullets’ mentor Kinnah Phiri need not to take things for granted. His assistant Gilbert Chirwa will do a great service if he informs the head coach what the Bullets saw at Chitowe three seasons ago, when the lakeshore giants came from 2-0 down to snatch a 3-2 victory.
A similar incident happened to Wanderers during the BMSL first round.
Again the Bullets need to tread carefully against a youthful but determined Civo which is capable of delaying the Bullets’ crowning by a further week.
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