By SANDRA MWILA and GIVEN CHIPASULA –

FIGHTON Simukonda says his team has no excuse for losing the decisive 2015 All-Africa Games (AAG) final round return leg match against Nigeria.
Simukonda said while missing out on qualifying for AAG to be held in September was painful, it was important to forge ahead and focus on securing a place at the Africa Under-23 Championship.
Zambia is on bye in the preliminary round and will face the winner between Kenya and Botswana in the first round next month with the winner advancing to the final round to play Ivory Coast for a place at the finals to be held in Senegal, after DR Congo withdraw from hosting.
He refused to heap blame on the players following the 2-1 defeat but that he will now shift attention towards preparing for the Africa Under-23 Championship which acts as qualifiers for the Rio 2015 Olympic Games.
Simukonda said in a post match interview that he will not heap the blame on his players but would rather concentrate on the way forward for the Under-23 especially with the qualifiers starting next month.
“We just have to shift our focus to the 2016 Olympic qualifiers, I will not blame the players, they did their best and we just lost. I also want to maintain the same team because these are the best players we have at the Under 23 level,” he said.
He said Zambian football is going through a rough patch and soccer fans should excuses patience on the teams as he condemned the fans for throwing missiles and criticising the players.
“Yes, we lost but we can’t stop playing football, it is not right for soccer fans to be throwing missiles at their own players what if they get injured,” a visibly annoyed Simukonda complained.
Meanwhile, Sports Minister Vincent Mwale described the Zambia’s failure to qualify for the AAG as painful especially that the team lost at home.
“We could have won the game. We had a lot of chances especially in the first-half but the boys could not score and losing at home is really painful and too hard to understand,” Mwale said.
He said the technical bench had a lot of work to do to transform the team into a winning side.
Mwale said his expectations and that of many Zambians were high especially after the team forced a 0-0 draw in Abuja in their first leg game.
He, however, urged the team to continue working hard because failing to go to the AAG was not the end of the world.
Zambia Sports Fans Association (ZASOFA) president, Peter Makembo said it was a bitter pill to swallow but urged the team not to lose hope.
Makembo said the team should now focus on what is ahead and leave the loss behind.
Chipolopolo Soccer fans Association (CSFA) chairperson Yotam Mwanza said the results were very disappointing and that Zambia should have taken advantage of the fact that they were playing at home because they had the full support from soccer enthusiasts.
He also urged the players to start playing like a team, saying there was a lot of individualism once on the pitch which he claimed ‘killed’ them in terms of goals.