A solitary strike by Darryl Nyandoro was enough to give Chicken Inn the edge over How Mine in a Bulawayo derby played at Luveve Stadium on Sunday.

A moment of sheer brilliance saw Nyandoro connecting a well timed pass from captain Clemence Matawu in the box to volley home with his left foot beating How Mine keeper Munyaradzi Diya in the 30th minute.

“Derbies are always very difficult. It’s about who gets the bragging rights in the city and my players managed to rise to the occasion. It was a good goal by Darryl; we played well in the first half, but I thought the second half was not very convincing,” said Chicken Inn coach Rahman Gumbo after the match.

Asked he if was happy with the direction his team is taking looking ahead of the 2017 season, Gumbo reckoned he had faced unfair criticism from the media sometimes.

“If Rahman Gumbo loses, it’s always a big story because some of our names sell newspapers, but some of the criticism from you guys (media) is not justified. I’m happy with the direction the team is taking,” he said.

For How Mine coach Kelvin Kaindu, the defeat means the gold miners are not guaranteed of a top eight finish.

“We are still stuck in almost the same position we were in before the match and that means we have to win the remainder of our matches for a realistic chance to finish in the top eight. Football is such a funny game because you win by scoring goals, but looking at the number of chances we created, I thought we had the upper hand. We conceded what I would call a silly goal because our defender left a striker unmarked in the box and we were punished,” said Kaindu.

Kaindu had been forced to make an unplanned substitution in the 25th minute, bringing in Qadr Amini for the injured Thembani Masuku on the left flank and switching left-back on the day Milton Ncube into the role of anchorman.

Just after the resumption of the first half, Kudakwashe Musharu’s header was cleared off the line by Chicken Inn defender Devine Lunga to deny How Mine the equaliser.

Gumbo brought in Obadiah Tarumbwa for goal scorer Nyandoro in the 63rd minute to keep pressure on the gold miners and the move almost paid off when Tarumbwa partnered with Matawu to set up Nicholas Muchadeyi, who, however, blasted his effort wide with only keeper Diya to beat.

Ncube did the unthinkable in the closing stages of the match by blocking a goal bound ball that had eluded Chicken Inn goalie Pride Zendera to deny his side a goal. The ex-Cape Town Ajax striker should have simply left the ball that had been struck by his teammate Toto Banda to trickle into the net instead of trying to control it.