03 Mar 2019

 Jwaneng Galaxy head coach, Miguel Da Costa believes his team has played the best football in the BTC Premiership over the past few months.

Second placed Galaxy made it eight wins from their last 10 league matches with a comfortable 2-1 away victory over a disjointed Extension Gunners on Saturday at Lobatse Sports Complex.

Galaxy dominated ball possession in the first half, but failed to pose much threat going forward.

It was Gunners which created the first clear opportunity with Mmoloki Kebalepile swinging in a cross which was narrowly headed over the post by the unmarked Lungisani Fanyana in the 15th minute.

Galaxy started pilling pressure towards the end of the first half with Gift Moyo shooting straight at the goalkeeper after being sent clear by Mpolokang in the 37th minute while Thero Setsile headed over the post after connecting with a cross from Olebogeng Malebye.

Mbise then bravely clawed the ball off Setsile as the attacker tried to pounce on a square ball from Atisang Batsi.

Galaxy finally took the lead four minutes after half-time through the speedy Setsile, who collected the ball outside the penalty area and skipped past challenges from two defenders before scooping the ball over Mbise.

Two minutes later, Isaac Paeye doubled the lead after a well worked corner kick. Batsi played a short corner to Malebye, who swung in the ball at the far post for the unmarked defender to tap in from close range.

Galaxy missed several opportunities to extend the lead which allowed Gunners to recover towards the closing stages of the match and pulled one back through Pako Moloi. The striker pounced on a long pass inside the penalty area and slotted the ball past goalkeeper Ezekiel Morake in the 89th minute. Gunners gave a much awaited debut to Masibuzane Zongo as a substitute.

Despite showing some deft touches, the South African failed to do much to spark life back into the home side’s performance.

The victory kept up Galaxy’s challenge for the league title with 46 points from 22 matches, and their coach Da Costa said his team was currently the best in the league.

“It was a tough match. Our first half was not the best one. We pushed our team too much giving spaces for them (Gunners) to enjoy. In the second half I told the players that we needed to enter very strongly in the box, so we scored two goals,” he said.

Da Costa insisted that his philosophy was to win matches rather than just play beautiful football. “Our approach is to win the three points. Sometimes people say we prefer to play beautiful football, but I prefer to win matches.

We have played, in the last seven matches, the best football in Botswana and nobody speaks about that.

I prefer to win matches because no one cares if you play beautiful football,” he said.Ends