10 Aug 2015

Township Rollers has made a big statement in the beMOBILE premiership this season by clobbering the ‘stubborn’ army side BDF X1 4-1 in a game played at the National Stadium on Saturday August 8.

From the start of the game, it was clear that Rollers were out to demolish the army side and as early as the seventh minute, Tshepo “Talk-Talk” Motlhabankwe unleashed a killer pass, but it was put to waste by Segolame Boy who ballooned the ball just inside the 18^th area.

However, in the 14^th minute Rollers won a corner kick which was well taken by Boy, and Lawrence Majawa did not waste time to slot it in the back of the net with a good header.

BDF XI tried hard to retaliate, but Rollers defence which was in an uncompromising mood managed to handle all the pressure.

Rollers, who were playing entertaining football, continued to pile pressure on their opponents, but failed to utilise a lot of their scoring opportunities.

The game went into recess with the score board reading 1-0 and after break, BDF X1 came back better as they tried hard to move forward looking for an equaliser, and their hard work paid dividends in the 55^th minute after Rollers keeper, Kabelo Dambe failed to deal with Mosha Gaolalwe’s shot and parried it back into play. Malebogo Ntebogang capitalised on the rebound to make it 1-1.

Hardly 10 minutes after BDF X1 goal, Motlhabankwe send the ball into the box and found Ramatlhakwana unmarked at the far post to make it 2-1.

In the 66^th minute, Rollers coach made a double substitution by pulling out Motsholetsi Sikile and Kobamelo Kebaikanye and introduced Gofaone Tiro and Galabgwe Moyana who increased the pace of the game.

In the 71^st minute, Boy received a good ball from Tiro and did not rush to score but composed himself to score a beauty to make it 3-1.

In the 82^nd minute, Boy put the final nail in Matebele’s coffin to make it 4-1 and ensure that his team earned three valuable points.

Despite Rollers playing good football on the day, their coach Mark Harrison said he was not impressed by his team’s performance on the day because they were below par.

“They scored four goals which is a massive plus, but we conceded a silly goal which I am not happy about. If you ask me about our performance out of 10, I think we were 4 or 5 out of 10,” he said.

Harrison said the first game of the league was not going to be easy given that all the teams want to start the league on a positive note. 

He further said BDF XI was a disciplined team, adding that they made life difficult for his players. 

BDF XI assistant coach, Louis Setshwane said he would not crucify his players, but said the technical team has identified players’ mistakes.

He explained that though they lost the game in the midfield, they managed to pile pressure on Rollers in the first half. ENDS