Substitute Mohammed Sulumba late strike helped Blantyre United keep their TNM Super League championship dreams alive after beating relegation bound Bvumbwe Research 2-1 at Kamuzu Stadium  in Blantyre on Saturday.

Tigzowere Kumwenda put Blantyre United in front in the 31st minute but Vincent Chinthenga, the current TNM Super League leading scorer, equalised with 15 minutes of regulation time left.

It was a game full of action as Bvum¬bwe tried to frustrate the league leaders in the opening stages.

Bvumbwe's promising performance saw Big Bullets and Mighty Wanderers fans uniting in rented support as they rooted for the league strugglers to cause an upset.

The league debutants' attacking mid¬fielder Ben Mbewe, who was named man of the match, twice tested Blantyre United goalie Carrington Misomali but could not score.

After bossing the play in the first 20 minutes, Bvumbwe fell behind when Kumwenda finished off a well calculated move to put United in front.

From this moment Blantyre United played to entertain with free-flowing football but never came close to scoring again.

At the hub of United's moves were skipper Jimmy Chikulekule and former Wanderers star Maxwell Chirwa who combined to dictate the tempo of the game.

Bvumbwe reorganised themselves to pull one back through Chinthenga, who increased his tally to 13 goals.

As the game was set for a draw super sub Sulumba, who had replaced Kumwenda, struck in the 89th minute to hand his side the precious three points.

Bvumbwe coach Bob Mpinganjira said it was a painful loss having dominated play for the better part of the game.

"The story could have been different if we had converted our chances," he said.

Blantyre United have maintained their two points lead over league champions Silver Strikers. United have 45 points from 23 games while Silver have 43 from 20 games. Bvumbwe have 18 points from 23 games.