10-man Zesco maintained their nine-point lead at the summit of the Faz Premier League table after beating hosts National Assembly 1-0 at Woodlands stadium in Lusaka Wednesday afternoon in a week 22 fixture.
Zesco were reduced to ten men after influential midfielder Rainford Kabala was sent off in quick succession.
Kalaba was playing his first game for Zesco after a month away on trials at French Ligue 2 club Chateauroux that fell through.
Referee Wellington Kaoma flashed two yellows in Kalaba’s face in the 22nd minute after booking the player for continuously protesting over his disallowed goal scored from a suspected off-side position.
The sent-off was Kalaba’s third of the season so far.
Despite being one man down, Zesco were still on top of things but were wasteful in front of Assembly’s goalmouth.
Zesco finally broke the deadlock in the 65th minute through striker Jonas Sakuwaha who headed-in a Frazer Kamwandi cross from the right just three minutes after coming on as a substitute.
Zesco are now on 49 points from 22 games played while Green Buffaloes stay 2nd after a 1-0 away win at Nchanga Rangers thanks to a goal from Maxwell Mulenga.
Kabwe Warriors stayed 3rd and three points behind Buffaloes on 37 points after a scoreless draw away to Forest Rangers in Ndola.
Lusaka Dynamos joined them on 37 points but remained 4th after beating visiting Young Arrows 1-0 via an 80th minute goal from Josphat Nkhoma.
Defending champions Zanaco begun life without the fired head coach Fighton Simukonda on an embarrassing note when they lost 1-0 away to relegation threatened Zamtel.
The win was only Zamtel’s second of the season since they were promoted this year.
Zanaco’s defeat was even more painful because the winning goal was scored by on-loan signing from the defending champions Nasha Kaya.
And how Zanaco would have surely wished their on-loan player had stayed on the bench-or altogether not even named on the 18-man list for today’s meeting.
Meanwhile, Numba Mumamba and Kelvin Kaindu are in temporal charge at Zanaco as the club searches for a permanent replacement for the fired Simukonda and his assistant Weston Mumba.
Power Dynamos continued on their recent fine form beating Konkola Blades 2-0 at home thanks to a brace from Elson Mukandawire.
Elsewhere, Roan lost 2-1 away to Nakambala Leopards while City of Lusaka were also defeated on the road after going down 1-0 against Red Arrows.
