SIMBA earned a third win from as many Premier League games so far this season as they stormed to a 2-0 success against Azam on Thursday at New Azam Complex in Zanzibar.

After a tense opening, the Msimbazi Reds were handed the initiative and showed no mercy as they punished the erratic Azam defence with a first half goal from Leonel Ateba.

When Fabrice Ngoma grabbed the second two minutes after the restart, it effectively sealed the points even with more than 40 minutes left to play.

Hosts Azam couldn't muster up the mammoth response needed to come back from 2-0 down as they slumped to their first defeat of the season, while Simba maintained their 100% record in the Premier League, with only reigning champions Young Africans and Singida Black Stars matching their form so far.

Simba head coach Fadlu Davids was thrilled by the performance of his players and lauded the execution that was needed to bring down an opponent as good as Azam.

“A huge credit first of all to the players, fantastic application. Huge credit to my technical team, coach Daran, the assistant coach Matola, the analyst and the entire technical team in terms of the work they do behind the scenes.

“The disappointment is that we could not score the second and third goal in the first half. I think we should have killed off the game in the first half with winning the ball, hurrying up the movements.

“The second half was very interesting to see how we would be able to maintain intensity of the first half keeping in mind that we just came off a very intense match against Al Ahli Tripoli after 60 minutes. 

“These CAF matches also help us in how we manage the game. We know that we have to manage our energy knowing we have another match on Sunday,” he said.

“Huge compliments and big lessons our team is growing step by step to be able to manage a game of this magnitude. Of course, huge credit to Azam and the coach, unbelievable players and they gave us a tough match. 

“Congratulations to them but I am proud of the players for executing the plan and getting three points,” he added.

Simba, who have played a match fewer than table toppers Singida Black Stars, can climb up further in the table again on Sunday when they visit Dodoma Jiji.