03 May 2016

Township Rollers coach Mark Harrison says as far as he is concerned his team is this year's be MOBILE Premiership champions after accumulating 67 points with only a game remaining to wrap up the 2015/2016 season.

Speaking in a post-match interview after after Rollers had won 1-0 against Green Lovers at the Selebi Phikwe Stadium on Saturday, Harrison said the rumours about Ofentse Nato being regarded as a defaulter and his team being docked points for using him were mere jokes that have hitherto failed to entertain him, Rollers players, supporters and management.

“We have registered Ofentse Nato accordingly following the rules and regulations that must be followed when registering a player. If the circulating rumours are true, it will only be a way of denying my team the league championship they have worked so hard for," he said, warning that, if need be, they will take the matter to FIFA for a final arbitration.

Meanwhile, during their weekend encounter against Green Lovers, it was clear that Rollers wanted the league honours by all means as they started on a high note with Joel Mogorosi, Jerome Ramatlhakwana, and Segolame Boy fearlessly attacking the home side's defence from all angles.

Rollers enjoyed possession especially the middle of the park where Maano Ditshupo and Lawrence Majawa relentlessly supplied plenty of good balls to the likes of Ramatlhakwana, Boy and Mogorosi but without the trio converting.

The ‘Green Marines’ defence, made of Kudakwashe Manuwere and Ignatius Ramasala, worked tirelessly to close down Rollers' attacks until their team recovered and started enjoying possession as well with their middle field anchor Pako Botshelo now distributing brilliant passes.

As the teams went for a half time break with no goals from either side, Rollers players looked more frustrated apparently for failing to find the back of the net as early as had expected.

In the second half, the Green Marines strikers started to break ‘Popa’s defence, but there was no effect as their shots went wide, although Manuwere’s long range shots missed the goal posts by an inch thereby threatening Rollers' keeper Kabelo Dambe.

After realising that Lovers were a threat and were all over his team, Harrison made his traditional substitution introducing Sekhana Koko, Terrence Mandaza and Gofaone Tiro for Ramatlhakwana, Mogorosi and Boy.

The substitution proved to be fruitful as Rollers started to build up from behind and attacked Lovers defence again with combination of Koko, Mandaza and Tiro giving the Marines a torrid time until they made an error inside the penalty box.
Koko made no mistake as he scored for Rollers in the 70th minute to make it 1-0 leaving Lovers players looking demoralised until the final whistle signaled the end of the game with Rollers narrowly winning by 1-0.

After the game, coach Harrison motivated his players, who looked unhappy yet they had won the game, to stand up and celebrate as they had managed to get the one point they were looking for to be crowned the new be MOBILE Premiership Champions.

Green Lovers coach Othusitse Kootswele graced his team for playing beautifully against a team of Rollers calibre noting that they displayed good football techniques and made him proud despite losing the match. Ends