18 Jan 2016

Township Rollers and Galaxy FC shared the spoils on Sunday in a beMOBILE premier league thriller at the Galaxy Stadium in Jwaneng that denied the former an opportunity to cement their lead in the log standings.

Township Rollers is currently at the summit of the log despite the weekend draw and losing two crucial points.

In the opening minutes of the first half, Galaxy tried enterprising passes when launching attacks but Rollers defence marshaled by Simisani Mathumo was awake to thwart the moves.

Both teams were playing first class soccer and it was an action animated game though both teams could not find the back of the net in the first stanza.

Both teams did not want to give each other a room to play as the search for goals to break the deadlock continued.

Galaxy’s Keotshepha Omphile was a marvel to watch as he kept on checking his opponents’ mettle that proved to be a hard nut to crack. Galaxy relied on straight attack and did not vary attack to get the better of their opposition thus making it difficult for them to suppress their opponents.

At recess teams were still locked 0-0. In some of the highlights of the game Sekhana ‘Nandos’ Koko fired a rocket after a breakthrough, but Galaxy’s goal minder Anthony Gouws was equal to the strike to make a brilliant save.

Rollers had an upper hand in the dying minutes of the second stanza as they were pushing forward in numbers, trying everything they could but could not find the back of the net. 

At full time the score sheet was still 0-0.

In an interview, Galaxy head coach Philane Mabhena said it was difficult to implement the plan because players just came from the break so their legs and brains were too tired to make good decisions.

Mabhena was optimistic that his team will improve in order to win the upcoming games. However, he noted that he will work on the mistakes to pave the way forward.

He said he started by using the 4-3-3 formation and then changed to 4-4-2 and went back to 4-3-3 because he wanted to stop Tshepo ‘Talk-Talk’ Motlhabankwe from causing havoc.

He said the January epoch is a difficult period therefore he was happy with a point, noting that it was a decent approach as they did not lose to a team well rated countrywide.

Rollers head coach, Mark Harrison said his charges were off-pace in the first half and that the mental approach of the game was not good enough to salvage a win.

He said he was happy with the second half though his team did not utilise their chances. 

He said he was using the 4-3-3 formation when attacking and changed to 4-5-1 when defending.

He said his team needs clinical finishers in order to win upcoming games. 

Harrison said he was not happy with the draw as it costs them two points. Ends