GOLDEN ARROWS VS MARITZBURG UTD | ABSA

10′ Mutizwa
47′ Moreira

Competition: ABSA Premiership
Date: Sunday 06 January 2019
Venue:  Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium
Kick-off: 15h30

Goals from Knox Mutizwa and Joao Moreira secured us a win in the KZN Derby game this afternoon against Maritzburg United.

It took just 10 minutes for us to open the scoring in the game this afternoon after some early pressure and good combination play saw us push up into the last third and put pressure on the Maritzburg defence.

Mutizwa headed the ball into the net off a cross from Danny Venter to take the lead. There were a number of chances before that, where we put pressure on Ofori. Seth Parusnath had an attempt and Lamola unleashed a shot. But it was the brilliant cross that gave us the opportunity to open the scoring.

Danny Venter also had a shot on target in the half, but Ofori managed to top the ball over the bar, an then later denie Mutizwa his brace with some good defending under pressure.

There was not much fight from the visitors in the first half, and only fought back in the last 5 minutes of the first half looking for the equalizer.

It was not to be, and heading into the break with a lead encouraged the team.

After the break, we substituted Mutizwa for Moreira and it was just 2 minutes after the break that he played a ball across the face of the goal after a through ball from Lamola.

Ofori failed to make the save, allowing us to extend the lead early on in the second half.

Maritzburg then seemed determined to fight back and the true colors of a Derby game began emerging.

The attacking play from them changed our game into a defensive one. This saw us tackling more than attacking and Jooste unfortunately fell short of the referee and received a red card for what was deemed a dangerous tackle.

This seemed to give Maritzburg the encouragement they needed and they fought back for a great deal of the half to try and pull at least one goal back.

Solid defence from the team denied them the opportunities, and when they did have the chances, Gumede stood solid in the goal mouth.

A well deserved win for the club today and a good start to 2019.

Todays result will be encouraging as we head off to face Bloem Celtic on Sunday 13th at 15h30.