Mighty Wanderers once again painted Blantyre city blue, hammering their eternal rivals FCB Nyasa Big Bullets for the third time this year—a feat that has sent shockwaves across the local football landscape and left the People’s Team gasping for answers.
Sunday afternoon at Kamuzu Stadium was a script of déjà vu. The atmosphere was electric, the stakes monumental, but in the 89th minute, Promise Kamwendo rose like destiny itself. He nodded home a powerful header that sealed a 1–0 victory for the Nomads in the FDH Bank Cup Semi-Final.
For Bullets, the loss wasn’t just another defeat; it was a painful punctuation mark on a year of frustration and fading dominance.
It came after Wanderers’ 3–0 thrashing of Bullets on October 26 in the TNM Super League, and a 1–0 triumph back on May 31.
In an interview on Wednesday, ex-Bullets midfield maestro Chimango Kayira did not mince words to his former team. Kayira said the Bullets of 2025 are shadows of their former selves—a once-feared machine now in need of tactical recalibration.
Kayira tells MBC, “Bullets need to be reawakened if they are to stand up against tougher opponents. There has been tactical rigidity and a lack of balance. The team has become predictable, and back-to-back defeats have drained their confidence.”
He traced the struggles to a difficult transition period under new head coach Peter Mponda, who inherited a team that finished third in the 2024 TNM Super League—a rare stumble for the club that had built a dynasty under former coach Kalisto Pasuwa. That year, Bullets collected 55 points from 30 games, finishing 12 points behind champions Silver Strikers and three behind Wanderers.
Since 2017, when they narrowly missed the title to Wanderers by just two points, Bullets had not gone a season without silverware—until now.
According to sports analyst Sebastian Liwonde, this reflects the league’s growth, with teams no longer willing to donate points easily.
“This record should send a message that there’s no simple team in the Super League now,” said Liwonde.
For Wanderers fans, 2025 feels like redemption long overdue. The last time they managed to outshine Bullets in all derbies of a single season was back in 2011, when they won 2–1 twice that year. Fourteen years later, the script has repeated itself, only more emphatically.
Former Wanderers midfield general Lawrence ‘Tico-Tico’ Majawa believes the Nomads’ resurgence is no fluke. “This season, Wanderers have been very good everywhere,” Majawa said.
As of today, the Nomads are still topping the TNM Super League table. In the FDH Bank Cup final, the Nomads will face Silver Strikers at Bingu National Stadium on Sunday.
