COACH Patrick Phiri has said time is ripe for his perennial under-achievers Green Buffaloes to start winning silverware as a way of paying back to its sponsors, starting with the Barclays Cup title.
After seeing off rivals Nkana 2-1 in the quarter-finals played at the weekend, Phiri now wants his side to win the K2 million Barclays Cup this year as a reward to the sponsors for their continued support to the team.
Phiri said in an interview at Nkoloma Stadium that he wanted Buffaloes to grow out of the second-best cocoon and start picking up silverware starting with the seventh edition of the Barclays Cup.
Buffaloes put up dominant display on Sunday afternoon to eliminate Nkana with a 2-1 win, where both the Zambia Army side’s goals came in the first half while Nkana netted in second-half stoppage time.
Buffaloes have struggled to stamp their mark on the league after their dominance in the late 1970s and early 1980s with their last league crown being the 1981 edition and the Mosi Cup in 2005.
The team reached the final of the Barclays Cup in 2009, losing to Power Dynamos, but Phiri believes his players are getting better each week and could be in line for a major title this year.
Meanwhile, MultiChoice Zambia has expressed happiness at the standards of football in the country and shown through the increase in live broadcasts of the Zambian Super league.
Public relations manager Marlon Kananda said SuperSport would be showing more of the matches on SuperSport this weekend, adding that the target for this year had been set at a minimum of 50 matches.