Mayanga lifts Prisons out of cliff

The Mbeya side has migrated from being pushovers where teams could easily pick up pints at ease within Sokoine Stadium to a formidable squad.

Credit should go to coach Salum Mayanga who has injected new spirit into the team and establish a new brand or achievement to meet the club’s fans base. May be this is a tribute to their chairman Hassan Mlwillo who passed away early this month.

Twenty rounds into the Mainland premier league season finds last season relegation candidate, Tanzania Prisons is not just looking to survive in the league but dreaming of a top five finish.

With just ten rounds to go, Prisons finishing in the top five is in fact not a big dream. It is a very realistic target. An achievable one given that they are placed sixth on the log, just one point shy of fourth-placed Mtibwa Sugar.

What we have witnessed this season is a turnaround of fortunes for a team that was once feared by the mighty in the league before a spectacular collapse saw them relegated.

Even when they managed to get promoted again, Prisons were a certain relegation candidate. In the past two seasons, they survived promotion on the last two rounds.

In the 2013/14, victory over Ashanti United on the last day of the disastrous campaign secured them survival. Last season, they were everyone’s favourite candidate for relegation till the last eight matches when they appointed a new coach.

Mbwana Makata was feted as the best coach of the season largely because everyone believed Prison’s relegation fate was sealed. The team had no fight, no bite in them. It was a military side but playing like wobbly war prisoners.

Many of us didn’t see what they did during the off season period as we got engrossed in the endless coverage of the big three clubs and the Cecafa Kagame Cup tournament.

Quietly, Makata was allowed through the back door in what was reported to be financial reasons. Salum Mayanga who had been in the Mtibwa Sugar technical bench for a long time was brought in.

A lot of deadwoods in the squad were released. The few unemployed players were integrated in the army set up. They didn’t do a lot of new business; they did a shake up to remain with a lean but highly motivated squad.

The business done thus far clearly exhibits the blatant fact that Prisons got they act done. They played their cards well and are no longer looking to survive any longer.

With ten games to play they are assured of a respectable mid-table finish. They have done this without injecting a lot of money but through looking around and correcting mistakes done internally.

Mayanja has managed to build a hard-working and competitive team that relies on players with premiership experience and some untapped quality.

He has blended in younger and ambitious players into the mix while ensuring that the team remains competitive and entertaining.

They are unbeaten at home against the big three. They surprised Simba to a 1-0 defeat and forced stalemates against Yanga and Azam to maintain their unbeaten home record this season.

In all the three matches at Sokoine, they matched and even outfought the big clubs. Simba were left counting their losses, Yanga counted themselves lucky to snatch a point while the Azam tie could have gone either way.

Even if they go on to lose steam in the remaining rounds and fail to achieve their changed target, a mid-table finish will be an acceptable accomplishment for the prison wardens.

They have come a long way from the bottom.
Now that they have successfully recovered it is interesting to wait and see if they can add more spine to take yet another step forward and become a team that regularly challenges for the top three positions and competes well in the other competitions such as the Mapinduzi Cup and the Federation Cup where they face archrivals, Mbeya City this weekend.