With a few games left before the Castle Lager Premier Soccer Season reaches the halfway mark, Highlanders’ players have been challenged to graduate from their ECD class to the next level of the programme.

Addressing the club’s weekly media briefing in Bulawayo Thursday, Bosso coach Madinda Ndlovu said it was time his boys graduated and became players of repute.

“They have been termed ECD all along, but with a few games before we reach the halfway mark, I believe the players need to show signs of graduating now. They need to start appreciating who they are and what they represent. We are still within our objectives of providing entertaining football, but what we tell them now will no longer be the same with what we were telling them during pre-season and when the season started,” said Ndlovu.

On whether or not his calls for the boys to turn Barbourfields Stadium into a slaughter house was deviating from the initial set objectives, Ndlovu said that was their own arrangement with the players and they were not being pressured by any outside forces.

“That is us the technical team and the players setting those standards. We are not under pressure from the fans or even the executive, no. It’s our own standard that we are setting and that does not mean we are deviating from what we have been preaching all along, which is providing entertaining football for our fans,” said Ndlovu.

Speaking last week, the Highlanders’ gaffer challenged his players to turn their home ground into a slaughter house and not allow visiting teams to do as they pleased.

His pronouncements came after Bosso had agonisingly lost 1-2 to ZPC Kariba at Barbourfields Stadium following two costly errors by goalkeeper Ariel Sibanda.

The Bulawayo giants are home to Caps United on Sunday.