A well deserved 3 points was collected at Princess Magogo Stadium as we beat Free State Stars 2-1 this afternoon.
All of the goals were scored in the first half, however, the action on field kept the spectators on the edge well into the 3 minutes of additional time at the end of the game.
Both teams made a slow start to the game, and it seemed to be more to try and determine the oppositions game plan. This didn’t last longer than 5 minutes though, and Free State Stars appeared to be trying to set some early dominance in play.
They missed a chance to take the lead after Rodgers fired and missed in the 10th minute. This seemed to rattle us awake and we quickly got back into the game and attacked with our possession.
In the 18th minute, Mutizwa, looking promising in the box, was hacked down by the Free State Stars keeper. We were awarded a penalty and Mutizwa made no mistake from the 12 yard mark.
Extending on the lead in the 25th minute, he then curled an amazing free kick over the wall and into the near post securing an early lead for the team.
Some undisciplined play then saw us lose our score advantage as Free State Stars were awarded a free kick. This was a well struck set piece from the edge of the area and Hlubi opened the scoring for his team.
The score remained 2-1 until full time but the second half of the game was action packed.
Ee Lla Koto came out of the change room looking lively. Jappie and Rodgers were linking up well, with Rodgers shooting a shot wide. The two players helped keep pressure on our defence while they searched for an equaliser.
Good defensive play as well as some great keeping from Mbaeva saw us through these periods of play.
We did have some opportunities that went begging. Mathenjwa and Mutizwa did well to keep on the attack, an try to find gaps to score, but we were just not able to extend the lead again.
Sabelo also had a chance to help wrap up the game in the 78th minute, but put his attempt over the bar.
The last minutes and extra time had to belong to Mbaeva for his keeping. The visitors well aware that they still had a sniff at a point bombarded the final third and threw all they had into trying to score.
Mbaeva kept his head though and had some amazing saves to help retain the 3 pointer for us.
We have a number of days now to prepare for our last away game of the season against Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus.
