The former premier league champions have played one international and two local friendly matches since the season ended in December.

Despite winning 2-0 against Chingale de Tete of Mozambique a fortnight ago, the Harare club maybe facing longer term change of fortunes against local teams.

Two of them were friendly matches played over the weekend against northern region division one side Trojan Stars – where Dynamos laboured to a 3-3 draw and another against Chapungu – where they staggered to a 1-0 win through an own goal.

The performances are coming in slowly for the Harare club which finished fifth on the league table last season.

Their fierce title rivals CAPS United, who appear to have gone far ahead in preparations for the new season, emphatically beat them 3-1 last week – a margin which, by normal standards, would have been deplorable.

And it was indeed deplorable.

Saturday’s 3-3 draw against Trojan FC in their off-season preparations was spiteful. A small club without a reservoir of talent which has recently been promoted from division two into the northern region division one, smacks of a pre-season gone wrong.

Five minutes after half time, Dynamos had put the game with a Mambare hatrick. How the visitors allowed the lowly hosts to come back from 3-1 is mind boggling. They failed to replicate their first half performance.

Some of their fans will argue that Dynamos fielded a string of young players in the match, but the analysis shows what Dynamos will be looking like from a neutral overview.

The 1-0 win over Chapungu by an own goal – is a strong statement on Dynamos’ preparedness. How the visitors failed to score a single goal against lowly Chapungu is uninteresting for the fans.

With the premier league season beckoning in a few weeks, the recent three performances will be a slow start by Dynamos as the former champions attempt to dominate premier league clubs again.