24 May 2018

Township Rollers have been crowned the 2017/18 BTC Premiership champions after beating visiting Lobatse Extension Gunners 2-0 in an exciting title deciding clash on May 23 evening.
Nikola Kavazovic’s men capped yet another memorable league victory with a third successive league title and an overall 15th national league title.

Kaone van der Westhuizen and Segolame Boy’s beautiful strikes in the first half made all the difference and propelled Mapalastina to a comfortable first spot in the closely contested league log.

The victory gave Rollers their 66th point of the season from 30 league games while Gunners registered their 11th loss of the season with 37 points.

Rollers had a little scare going into the game as Jwaneng Galaxy were heavily breathing on their necks. Victory was the only way out for the ‘Blue Nation’ as positive results for Galaxy against Mochudi Centre Chiefs could have gifted the former the lucrative cup title. The visiting Jwaneng side stumbled and settled for the second spot as they could only salvage a point against the struggling Kgatleng side.

At the National Stadium, Rollers played molten attacking football from the first whistle and as early as the third minute Edwin Moalosi set up van der Westhuizen whose unfamiliar run in the enemy’s territory resulted in a beautiful opener. Boy got the second in the 25th minute with a stunning free kick from yards outside the Gunners penalty area after a dubious free kick was awarded to Rollers.

The latter could have buried a couple of chances deep in the second stanza but Moalosi’s indecisiveness cost an arm and a leg for his side. Gunners’ goal minder Thomas Manyelela was not troubled for the entire period of the second half and this allowed his midfield to recollect and throw in a few punches.

Rollers’ last man in defence Mwampule Masule nearly gifted Gunners a goal with a mistimed save but the blooper was quickly handled by the ever alert defence.
Gunners lanky and hard shooting Mmoloki Kebalepile tried a couple of long range strikes but Masule was equal to the task. Gunners’ wingers Baokeditswe Talane and Bakang Tsholang fought hard with their blistering pace to crack their opponents’ defence but to no avail. Ends