10 Apr 2016

Black Forest have gained promotion to the beMOBILE Premiership by beating closest rivals Rolling Boys 1-0 in a tense Debswana First Division South league match played in Mmankgodi on Saturday afternoon. 

A big crowd of mostly Forest supporters came to witness their team enter top flight football for the first time in its history. 

Forest have now amassed an unassailable 44 points after their weekend win with two matches left to complete the league. 

Second placed Rolling Boys are trailing them by eight points.   

The first half was tightly contested but the hosts had slight territorial dominance. 

Forest scored the all-important goal in the 30^th minute through Tiro Pheresi who scrambled home a rebound after Boys goalkeeper Mmoloki Sedimo had saved Odirile Pitso’s effort. 

Both teams were unlucky not to score further goals in the first half as they were denied by the post. 

Forest piled more pressure in the second half as they looked to extend their lead and Pitso was unlucky to see his shot crash against the crossbar and bounce back into play. 

However, Boys refused to roll down as they also posed serious threat on April Phale’s goalposts.  

Bophelo Macheng scrambled the ball into net following a goal mouth melee after Forest defence failed to clear a corner kick, but the goal was ruled out after the referee adjudged that a foul was committed before the ball crossed the line. 

Daniel Montshiwa cleared Gofaone Mabaya’s header of the line in the last minute of normal time to prevent Forest from doubling their lead. 

Forest coach, Murphy Maseko attributed their success to his players’ good discipline. 

“There is a good spirit in this team. The players trusted me when I arrived in this team and they listened to everything I told them to do,” Maseko said. 

He said their strategy for the match against Boys was to be compact at the back and play long balls forward because their opponents had good passers of the ball in midfield. 

“We did not want to go in an all-out attack because we knew that they were capable of punishing us,” he said. 

Rolling Boys coach, Thaloba Nthaga said his team played well across the pitch but failed to create enough chances going forward. 

In other Debswana First Division South matches played on Saturday, Mochudi Rovers beat Letlapeng 2-1, Modipane United beat Tsabong Black Rangers 1-0 while Prisons XI defeated Lesirane City 1-0. Ends