14 Mar 2016

A highly charged and emotional Debswana First Division North encounter between city rivals, Tafic and Tasc ended in a two all draw amid fingers pointed at the match referees for possible favoritism.

Tasc players were very angry in the dying minutes of the game accusing the referee, John Palalani and his assistants, Emmanuel Chabanda and Meshack Medupe, of what they termed taking sides.

The game started off with Tafic looking the more serious side launching numerous attacks but not lucky to produce any goal.

Their forwards, stocky Allen Dewere and Mbatshi Elias failed to find the back of the net while Tasc’s duo of Oratile Taunyane and Tsaone Maswate also found the going tough.

Tafic however opened the score sheet on the 31^st minute through Ogomoditse Bauleni who did some nice exchanges with Alfred Motiki to beat Kutlo Motshwaedi in the Tasc goal posts.

Matjimenyenga, as it is affectionately called by its legion of supporters then looked more like a team intent on winning, going to the first half break leading.

In the second half, both sides continued to use their flanks as launch pads for attacks but were equally wasteful in front of the goal posts.

Tasc got their acts together and were rewarded when a Lucas Motlhabane’s powerful shot was deflected by Thato Mosweu to beat Chamu Madamombe on Tafic’s goalposts to make it one all.

The goal caught Tafic off-guard and started to look like a side in disarray, forcing the likes of Dewere, Elias and Motiki to work overtime in the front.

Meanwhile, the referee, Palalani gave Tasc coach marching orders for something he said and reported to him by his assistant referee Medupe.

However, his absence from the bench did not impact much as Tasc stunned Tafic and left the Matjimenyenga supporters silenced on the 83^rd minute when Maswate super strike made it 2-1.

With the Tango Boys thinking they have the game in the bag, Tafic’s Elias floated a great ball into the box, finding Dewere alone to connect with a header beating Motshwaedi on the 87^th minute.

Tasc players tried to complain that the striker was offside but referee Palalani had none of it and Tafic continued to pile pressure and were unlucky when Elias header was wide on the 89^th minute.

In the referee’s additional time drama started when Maswate was given a red card and a freekick awarded to Tafic.

The decision irked the Tasc players, with several having to be restrained as they marched towards Palalani, and another red card was in the middle of all this given to the Tango Boys reserve goalkeeper, Tshepo Kgongwana.

However, the game ended with both sides sharing the spoils and the Tasc players continued their protest with regard to what they deemed as biased and unfair refereeing up to the dressing rooms.

The stakes are high in this league as many now realise that with few games left it would take accumulation of maximum points in each game to challenge for promotion to the elite league. Ends