GOLDEN ARROWS VS GA RANKUWA | NFD

Competition: NFD
Date: Saturday,18 October 2014
Venue: Chatsworth Stadium
Kick-off: 15:30pm

Lamontville Golden Arrows have once again pulled off a win at home at Chatsworth Stadium against Pretoria based Ga Rankuwa FC in their NFD clash this afternoon.

The first 5 minutes of the game saw both teams getting the feel of ball and ground under them, with Golden Arrows having two plays that saw them take the ball into the opponents box, one with a great shot at goal, resulting in corner, Arrows camp in the box, till eventually Ga Rankuwas keeper holds onto the ball.

This strong attacking play on the offset by Abafana Bes’thende set the tempo of the game and showed that they had turned up for a win today. Arrows first aggresive attacking strategy paid off when Masaole scored with a header over the keepers head from outside the box, to give Arrows the lead.

The half saw some great attcking football, with the team taking every opportunity to get the ball up into the opposition box, capitalising on high kicks and selective, short ground ball, depending on the situation. The team played as a unit, communicating well with each other and continuing to show confidence on the field.

Second half saw Ga Rankuwa come out of the change rooms showing more determination to score. This upped the tempo of the game greatly and while the play gets more competitive it also sees the players becoming more physical. Abafana Bes’thende still showed the upper hand in the game though with a number of shots at goal, many of which were on target, but Ga Rankuwas keeper just managed to keep out.

Golden Arrows work rate on the field was fantastic and the team looked at every opportunity to get into the opponents half, creating a number of opprtunities to score, but once again, not enough to get another past the keeper.

That being said, the team is playing with a new found strength and confidence and even after captain Mathiane left the field with a mild concussion, Katjiukua came on as a sub and Hendricks stepped into the boots of captaining the team for the remainder of the game.

The win means that the team will move to the top of the NFD log, a position that they will fight to keep at all costs, and seeing that they have not conceeded a goal now in 7 games, their intentions are clear.