How Mine are looking for what their coach Kevin Kaindu terms the ‘second anointing’ when they clash against Highlanders at Barbourfields on Sunday.

Kaindu believes his team’s prayers during the turbulent first half of the season in which they went for eight matches without a win, have been answered with a resurgent display in recent matches, thus the ‘second anointing’.

How Mine are still to lose a match in the second round of matches building confidence as they rise on the log standings, giving Kaindu a ray of hope that his charges will triumph in the derby against Highlanders.

“The second half of the season has been favourable to us because we are still to lose a match. This is because of the second anointing we got after a difficult first half of the season,” said Kaindu.

“The momentum we have is good going into this derby against Highlanders because we want to continue accumulating points so that we get a respectable finish. We are in the last stages of the league and it’s getting tougher such that you need to continue getting points.”

“Matches are now tougher because you have teams at the bottom like Mutare City and Border Strikers fighting to stay afloat and are winning matches and also teams at the top fighting to end on better positions.”

Kaindu is however not reading much into Highlanders’ poor run in which they have gone for six matches without a win.

“This is a derby match, and derbies the world over are very tricky. It is in such matches that new heroes are born so we are not underrating them at all basing on their current form because form books are torn apart in derbies.

 But we will still go out and dominate like we did in the first match but guard against conceding soft goals which saw us losing the reverse fixture,” added Kaindu.

How Mine’s last defeat was in the first half of the season when they suffered a 2-1 home defeat to Ngezi Platinum. They have now gone for seven matches without a defeat, posting three wins and three draws.

Goals from Bruce Kangwa and Simon Munawa propelled Highlanders to victory in the reverse fixture.