AJAX CAPE TOWN VS GOLDEN ARROWS | ABSA

Competition: PSL
Date: Friday,15 April 2010
Venue: Newlands Stadium
Kick-off: 20:00pm

Lamontville Golden Arrows’ continued their disappointing travels to the Cape, losing for the a third time this season in the Mother City when Ajax Cape Town beat them 3-1 at Newlands on Friday night.

It was the first defeat for new coach Ernst Middendorp, whose first game last week had seen Arrows arrest a run of nine matches without success by beating defending champions SuperSport United 4-2.

But Arrows were unable to pick up where they left off as Ajax went back to the top of the Premier Soccer League standings.

Middendorp was forced to take defender Mseleki Mvalo off after just 15 minutes as he picked up a quick yellow card and might have got a second for a tackle on Sameegh Doutie soon after.

A 22nd minute goal from a corner from Thulani Hlatshwayo then saw Arrows go behind, caught by a header from the young fullback.

A brilliant individual effort from Thulani Serero doubled the lead early in the second half, as he scored with the left foot from close range, and when George Maluleke scored after 66 minutes for a third, the match was effectively over.

Nhlanhla Zothwane and Vusimuzi Vilakazi were both brought on to try and engineer a revival and a late penalty offered Arrows a feint glimmer of hope after a handball in the area allowed Collins Mbesuma to net from the spot.

It was the Zambian international’s ninth goal of the season and kept him in touch with the race to finish as the league’s leading goalscorer.

MATCH STATS
Lamontville Golden Arrows (0) (Mbesuma 86’ pen)
Ajax Cape Town (1) 3 (Hlathswayo 22’, Serero 54’, Maluleke 62’)

Golden Arrows: Ntombela, Mvalo (Tom 15’), Sangweni, Musonda, Zwane, Khuboni, Nkosi (Zothwane 75’), Manqana, Moon, Murakami (Vilakazi 76’), Mbesuma.