BULAWAYO- CAPS United coach Lloyd ‘Lodza’ Chitembwe has hailed his charges for their fighting spirit despite loosing 1-2 to Highlanders at Bobourfields Stadium today.

A players’ strike in the green half of the capital marred preparations for the clash, with CAPS players only training on Friday, a day before they left for Bulawayo.

Despite the challenges, Makepekepe were excellent in the first half and went to the half time break leading 1-0 courtesy of William Manondo’s 34th minute scorcher.

Bosso leveled matters just after the restart through Devine Mhindirira.

The Bulawayo giants completed the turnaround with ten minutes remaining through Washington Navaya.

Despite the defeat, Chitembwe was impressed by how his troops executed themselves given the situation.

“Congratulations to the boys. We are talking of a team that only had one training session and for them to give me this gutsy performance, I thought they did very well,” Chitembwe told the media after the game.

“The most unfortunate thing is, obviously the environment was not as good. For the first time it felt like we were playing in North Africa, but these are very good experiences as far as I’m concerned.

“I’m sure the boys will get stronger with these situations and I want to give credit to them.

“If these players can give me such kind of a performance and show me this kind of commitment, considering that they never trained, I think they deserve special praise,” he added. – Soccer 24 Zimbabwe