21 Mar 2016

Police XI delivered a potentially fatal blow to Mochudi Centre Chiefs title defence in Molepolole on Saturday.

Having found the back of the net as early as the ninth minute through a Lemponye Tshireletso free-kick, Magosi should be kicking themselves for giving away such two valuable points especially at this critical stage of the premiership.

Many Magosi supporters must have been anticipating a convincing win as they watched their team press the opponent for the better part of the game.

However, Chiefs failed to use the numerous chances they created, and only had themselves to blame after a miscommunication between shot-stopper, Mompoloki Sephekolo allowed Police XI to level matters through Ogomoditse Sitang with five minutes remaining.

Knowing what the draw meant to their chances of the championship, an irate Michael Sithole could only blame his team for the loss.

“From the start of the game until the end we created numerous scoring chances and we could have converted about five of them, but unfortunately this is football. If you don’t convert your chances you cannot win the games,” he said.

Sithole said he was also worried about the tendency of his team to give away soft goals.

“Even against Township Rollers, last weekend, we gave away a silly goal and that mistake has happened again today,” he said.

Sithole said the loss would not dampen their spirit and promised to keep fighting until the last game.

Having fleeced a point where there  seemed to be no hope, Police XI assistant coach, Maitumelo ‘Junior’ Lotlaamoreng appreciated that indeed a point was better than nothing and admitted that they did not play well, especially in the first half.

“Chiefs were dominating the midfield and we allowed them to dictate play but in the second half we made a tactical substitution and pulled out our defensive midfielder to neutralise them. This then allowed us to start attacking them,” he said.

The draw left Chiefs at position three with 53 points, two points behind second placed Orapa United and four points behind log leaders, Rollers.

In the first game of the double header, BDF XI saw off Gaborone United 2-1.

With Matebele having been reduced to 10 men as early as the 24th minute when Keeagile Kobe received his marching orders for an off the ball incident, many expected Moya Goleele to exploit the numerical advantage, but it was BDF XI who netted first through Patrick Kaunda in the 29th minute.

GU however, managed to pull a ray of hope when Thato Ogopotse equalised on the stroke of halftime after a number of neat passes that created a hole in the BDF XI defence.

Moyagoleele however, allowed Matebele to seal all the important points when they allowed Mosha Gaolaolwe a free header inside the box, beating Michael Pepukani at the far post to seal the game.

The result however, didn’t change the positions of both teams in the log standings. Ends