When Ekhaya Football Club stepped into the elite league, their ultimate goal was simple: survive relegation in their maiden season. With just eight games remaining, that goal is nearly within reach.
The Cowboys made an impressive start to their campaign, finishing the first round in fourth place with 26 points—just nine points off the top of the table. From 15 matches, they recorded eight wins, two draws, and five losses.
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However, the second half of the season has proven more challenging. From their last seven games, Ekhaya have managed just two wins, one draw, and four losses, causing them to slip from fourth to eighth place. After 22 games, they have accumulated 33 points, sitting 18 points off the top and nine points clear of the bottom three.
The TNM Super League rookies return to action this Saturday against Chitipa United at Mpira Stadium. With eight games remaining, Ekhaya need approximately 10 points to guarantee safety—though they may require fewer if Mafco, Dedza Dynamos, and Mzuzu City Hammers drop points in their remaining fixtures.
Heading into Saturday’s clash, Ekhaya will look to build on recent form. They have won two of their last four matches—victories over Songwe Border FC and Kamuzu Barracks—while suffering a home defeat to Blue Eagles and drawing 1-1 with Dedza Dynamos.
Speaking on Thursday, Head Coach Enos Chatama reiterated that survival remains the team’s primary objective this season, but vowed that Ekhaya will bring genuine competition to the league next year.
“The boys are looking good, though it’s been a long time since we kicked the ball in a competitive match. We’ve just been training,” Chatama said. “After the international break, we are back and ready to resume and finish the last games of the league.
“What we want is to look at one game at a time. We have to go back to past games, view the mistakes, analyze the situations, and prepare accordingly. We must treat one game at a time. If we look at other teams, we are going to fail along the way.
“You could see how we started the second round—it’s been disappointing. We had a lot of home games but never collected enough points. If you look at the statistics, we’ve lost more points at home than away in the second round. It shows we didn’t iron out the problems from the past. We need to move forward, look at this game with positivity, iron out all past mistakes, and get positive results.”
The coach emphasized that consistency and eliminating complacency are crucial to finishing the season strongly.
“Consistency is important, and we also have to eliminate complacency. It cannot be tolerated in our team. If you’ve seen how we’ve dropped points—games we were supposed to win, we lost due to complacency. We underrated teams before playing them. But this time the boys know the situation is getting tougher.
“We are in this situation because of our own making. We created an environment that could have been avoided. Had we won enough games, we wouldn’t be in this position. We have to make sure we win on Saturday and get out of this situation.”
Despite the recent struggles, Chatama expressed confidence in his squad’s mentality.
“The morale is high in the camp. The boys seem happy at training and are doing everything with a positive mindset. We are a free-minded team, and everything is going well—only what we expect is not what we’re getting during games. But we believe this time we are ready to get maximum points and stand a chance of surviving relegation.
“We are building something better for the future. The future looks bright. The team is gelling little by little. Next season we will have a competitive team that will improve Malawi’s football and bring real competition to our league,” Chatama concluded.
Ekhaya was founded in 2023 and won the Southern Region Premier League before earning promotion to the TNM Super League.
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