04 Feb 2019

Notwane head coach, Michael Mogaladi says they are aiming to finish on position six at the end of the BTC Premiership campaign.

Tenth placed Notwane continued their chase of teams above them by beating Sharps Shooting Stars 2-0 through second half goals by Lesego Lubinda and Sithembile Mbuqe on February 3 at Lobatse Sports Complex.

Although Sharps came close to scoring through captain, Monageng Thaele’s close range attempt and Khumo Bogale’s long range effort in the opening minutes of the encounter, ‘Sechaba’ were the better team and fully deserved their victory.

They created a number of chances in the first half with Lubinda testing Sharps goalkeeper Bobby Mathe with a low shot, while the lively Tlhalefo Molebatsi and Benjamin Sarkoh dragged their attempts off target.

Amos ‘Shoes’ Godirwang wasted a glorious opportunity to open the scoring, firing over the posts after a cross from Katlego Koobake caught the Sharps defence napping in the 38th minute.

Notwane goalkeeper, Michael Pepukani saved a fierce shot from Khumoetsile Kufigwa and a header from Thabo Metlhayotlhe in quick succession in the second half, before ‘Sechaba’ took the lead in the 71st minute when Lubinda bundled home a loose ball after a goalmouth melee.

Six minutes later, Mbuqe latched onto a wonderful pass from Pepukani and kept composure before beating Mathe to wrap up victory.

The victory left Notwane in position 10 with 23 points from 19 matches.

Mogaladi said there was still room for improvement from his players and revealed that their target was to finish on position six.

Concerning their performance in the match, he said: “One would say it was a good performance because we won, but from the coach’s point of view, I would say I am worried about how we started the game. I will have to analyse the factors that contributed to us starting the way we started. We started very slow, but second half we played very well. I will be happy if every time we can play like we did in the second half.”

For Matshidiso ‘Chirwa’ Moseki, the defeat was his second in his first two assignments as Sharps’ head coach.

He said his team was not aggressive enough upfront to make the opposition defence feel the pressure.

“We are disappointed, but we know that it’s a game of football. We will go back and correct the mistakes which caused us to lose today. We were not aggressive enough and allowed Notwane defenders to be free and add more numbers in midfield. Our midfield and defence were under pressure and we cracked,” said Moseki.

Sharps have dropped to position six with 30 points from 19 matches. ENDS