Songwe Border United’s dream debut season in the TNM Super League has turned into a nightmare, with their chances of survival now looking increasingly slim following Sunday’s defeat to Moyale Barracks.

The Northern Region side will not participate in the 2026 Airtel Top 8 Cup after a disastrous first-round campaign that has seen them suffer 20 defeats in 23 matches, collecting just 5 points from two draws and one solitary win.

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With seven games remaining, Songwe can accumulate a maximum of 21 points, bringing their potential total to 26 points. However, even this best-case scenario would not be enough to crack the top eight, as eighth-placed Blue Eagles have already amassed 31 points with games still to play.

The situation is equally bleak for a top-nine finish, as ninth-placed Chitipa United have already collected 29 points—three more than Songwe’s theoretical maximum.

For Songwe to even secure a top-ten finish, they would need to win all seven remaining matches while hoping that Creck Sporting Club lose all eight of their remaining fixtures—a mathematical possibility but a highly improbable scenario.

The grim reality facing Songwe Border is that they are now just a few games away from relegation in their debut TNM Super League season. With teams above them continuing to collect points, the Northern Region side’s margin for error has all but disappeared.

Their remaining fixtures present a mixed bag of challenges. They will host Creck Sporting Club, Mzuzu City Hammers, Blue Eagles, Dedza Dynamos, and Civil Service United at home, while facing difficult away trips to Mafco and Silver Strikers.

COACH REMAINS DEFIANT

Despite the dire circumstances, Songwe Border assistant coach Blessings Sinyangwa remains cautiously optimistic, insisting that the battle is not yet over.

“We can’t say here that we are out because we still have games to play. We don’t also know the results of other teams that are ahead of us,” said Sinyangwa after the Moyale Barracks defeat.

“We are playing well. Like today, we did everything but we missed some chances. We are not yet out of the competition—let’s wait until we play our next games.”

While Sinyangwa’s determination is admirable, the numbers tell a sobering story. Songwe would need a remarkable turnaround—winning all seven remaining matches while other results fall dramatically in their favor—to avoid the drop.

For a team that has won just once in 23 attempts this season, such a transformation would require nothing short of a miracle. The Northern Region side’s debut campaign, which began with hope and ambition, now faces an inglorious conclusion unless they can produce an unprecedented run of form in the final seven games.

As things stand, Songwe Border United are staring relegation in the face, and time is rapidly running out for them to rewrite their story.

Songwe Battle to Avoid History

In the annals of Malawian football, some records are etched not in glory, but in cautionary tales of survival. As Songwe Border United trudges through the 2025 TNM Super League season with seven matches remaining, they find themselves in an unenviable position: fighting not just against relegation, but against becoming the worst team in a decade of league history.

The ghosts of past failures loom large. Max Bullets’ catastrophic 2016 campaign remains the benchmark for futility—eight points from 30 matches, just one victory, and a soul-crushing goal difference of minus-50. Their season imploded spectacularly when they caused a match abandonment after accusing officials of bias against EPAC FC, resulting in awarded points that sealed their fate with five games still to play. By season’s end, they had conceded 65 goals while mustering only 15, a statistical horror story that has defined rock bottom ever since.

Now Songwe Border United stands at that same precipice. The mathematics are stark: collect at least three points from their remaining seven matches to avoid Max Bullets’ infamous eight-point total. But the challenge extends beyond mere points. With 55 goals already conceded, they must avoid shipping ten more to stay clear of Max Bullets’ defensive record. Meanwhile, their attack needs eight more goals to surpass that 15-goal threshold—a tall order for a team clearly struggling at both ends of the pitch.

The roll call of relegated shame tells a broader story about the TNM Super League’s unforgiving nature. Rumphi United’s 2022 season stands as perhaps the most defensively porous, leaking 73 goals despite matching Max Bullets’ meager 15 scored. Their 10-point haul—three wins, one draw, and 26 defeats—at least spared them from being the absolute worst, though their goal difference of minus-58 remains a painful legacy for the Northern Region club.

Baka City’s 2024 descent added another chapter to this litany. Thirteen points, two victories, seven draws, and 74 goals conceded painted the picture of a team perpetually overrun. Now plying their trade in the National Division League, they serve as a reminder of how quickly fortunes can turn in Malawian football.

Chitipa United’s 2017 campaign—16 points from four wins and four draws—seems almost respectable in comparison, though their 22 defeats and minus-39 goal difference still represented failure. Even Nchalo United in 2018, who would have finished with 20 points before a three-point deduction for alleged match-fixing, fell victim to off-field controversy compounding on-field struggles.

The pattern reveals a harsh truth: in the TNM Super League’s bottom tier, the gap between survival and catastrophe is measured in tiny margins. Recent seasons have seen relegated teams finish with between 13 and 21 points—Extreme’s 18 in 2023, Mzuzu Warriors’ 18 in 2020/21, Masters Security’s 20 in 2019. Only Max Bullets and Rumphi United truly stand apart in their comprehensive failures.

For Songwe Border United, survival remains theoretically achievable. Seven matches offer opportunities for redemption, for escaping both relegation and infamy. But statistics are unforgiving judges, and history weighs heavy on teams trapped at the bottom. Every goal conceded, every chance squandered, every point dropped adds another line to a story no club wants written about them.

As the season’s final stretch unfolds, Songwe fights a war on multiple fronts: against opponents, against the drop, and against becoming a cautionary tale whispered whenever Malawian football fans discuss the league’s darkest hours. Max Bullets’ shadow stretches long, and avoiding it requires not just points, but a transformation that has eluded struggling teams for a decade.

The coming weeks will determine whether Songwe can author their own escape or whether they’ll join an unfortunate pantheon—a monument to the brutal reality that in football, sometimes survival itself becomes the only measure of success.