Northern Region Football Association (NRFA) has expressed gratitude with the way the 2019 premier league season is progressing despite some underperformances by some few teams who are conceding higher number of goals.

Bishop Abraham Simama’s sponsored premier league is currently half way through its first round.

NRFA general secretary, Masiya Nyasulu said unlike the previous season, this time more teams have shown that they were adequately prepared.

Nyasulu said: “So far we are experiencing stiff competition despite some minor weaknesses by a few teams but still we are impressed and this is evidenced by looking at the competition in the top three of the log table where the league leaders and the second placed are at tier on 26 points each while the third placed team has 25 points.”

In a game which was played on June 30 at Chibavi ground, the current league leaders, Ekwendeni Hammers, hammered the fifteenth placed side, Kajipoze FC by 10-1 a development which soccer followers wondered on the credibility of the competition.

However Nyasulu has commended the teams for their consistency in honoring the fixtures unlike the previous season where by teams were frequently absconding games due to their own reasons such as financial issues.

He also said the first round of the season is expected to wind up by the end of August.

Currently, Ekwendeni Hammers is leading on the log table with 26 points from 11 games, followed by Rumphi United with similar number of points but have played 14 games.

Fish Eagles is anchoring the table and are yet to collect any point after playing 4 games.