Champions Mighty Wanderers yesterday left it late to beat Goshen City Dedza Dynamos 2-0 at Mpira Stadium in Chiwembe Township, Blantyre to firmly keep up the heat on their arch-rivals and leaders FCB Nyasa Bullets.

With the tie seemingly headed for a stalemate and the Nomads faithful visibly losing hope, Wanderers were awarded a penalty with eight minutes of normal time left after a Dedza Dynamos defender was adjudged to have fouled Dalitso Nahipa.

The turnout held its breath as substitute Lameck Mithi stepped up for the spot-kick and he did the rest to perfection by sending the visitors’ goalkeeper Blessings Juma the wrong direction. No fuss, job done.

The jubilation that greeted the goal spoke volumes of the relief in the blue side of town.

Moments later, Mithi doubled the Nomads lead to take his tally to seven goals. He was set up by Blessings Mwalilino and three points were in the bag for the Nomads.

Following the win, the Nomads now have 39 points from 19 matches, three points short of Bullets who edged Masters FC 1-2 at Bingu National Stadium  in Lilongwe.

Dedza Dynamos coach Eliah Kananji blamed the defeat on lapse of concentration towards the end.

“In the first half we played according to our game plan. In the second half, we sort of lost concentration. We will go back to the drawing board and work on our shortfalls,” he said.

His Wanderers counterpart Bob Mpinganjira described the encounter as a tough match.

“It was a very difficult match. We had many scoring chances in the first half, but we couldn’t make good use of them. The good thing is that we fought on and got the two late goals,” he said.

Dedza Dynamos remain 12th with 20 points.

In Lilongwe, Bullets registered their fifth straight win, but it was not a stroll in the park against a side that had five of their former players in the starting line-up, namely goalkeeper Richard Chimbamba, defenders Precious Sambani and Khumbo Banda, midfielder Mike Mkwate and striker Hassan Kajoke.

In charge of the home team was Bullets’ former coach Peter ‘Mjojo’ Mponda.

Having weathered a sluggish opening act, Masters worked their way into the game with some neat passes across the sunlit pitch.

But it was the People’s Team who took the lead through Clever Kalambo in the 45th minute when he connected home a cross from Misheck Billiat.

But almost immediately, Masters pulled level when Kajoke made a good run before setting up Frank Sanudi with a pass that oozed class to score the equaliser.

Masters appeared to be in control of the match until Billiat struck the winner in the 60th minute. The hosts fought for another equaliser, but Bullets held on to their lead.

In other matches, Lilongwe-based Malawi Defence Force (MDF) side Kamuzu Barracks edged Chitipa United 1-0 at Aubrey Dimba Stadium in Mchinji courtesy of Raphael Phiri’s strike.

Another MDF side Mafco FC of Salima pipped Blantyre-based Ekhaya FC 1-0. Clifford Msowoya scored the lone goal. Despite the win, Mafco still anchor the 16-team table with 16 points from 19 matches.

Standard Bank Blue Eagles and Luanar Mitundu played out a one-all draw at Nankhaka Stadium in Lilongwe while Mzuzu-based MDF outfit Moyale Barracks beat Karonga United 2-1.