07 Apr 2019

Jwaneng Fighters and Uniao Flamengo Santos on April 7 played to a goalless draw at Jwaneng, giving log leaders, Gilport Lions more space for a breather after they saw off bottom placed Blue Stars 4-1.

The results mean that Gilport have increased their lead over Santos and Fighters, who are second and third placed respectively from three to five points with three games remaining.

But despite that, coaches of both Fighters and Santos said they were still optimistic of their chances of promotion even though they admitted that the chances were now slim.

Fighters coach, Andrew Tlou said they would work hard until the final game. 

“At the beginning of the campaign we wanted to win this league and we started well, unfortunately in the last few games our train got off the rails a bit. It has really been bad, but I have been in this situations before and we won’t give up. We will fight until the last game,” he said.

Tlou indicated that his team disappointed in finishing. 

“We have been working hard on sharpening our finishing, even last week we spent about 30 minutes just working on our finishing but when we get to the game it becomes a different thing. Lack of composure is still our main undoing,” he said.

An equally optimistic Innocent Ranku of Santos said that they were positive of salvaging some results in their last three games.

“We need to become more ruthless in these last three games. The team is not that bad, all we need to do is improve on our transition from the back to front. We should be quicker and hit our opponents with counters,” he said.

He said despite the lack of goals, he was proud of the team’s performance, noting that they could have killed the game in the first half before their opponents got a chance to study them.

“It is always important to try and score in the first half because the second half is usually more tactical as teams would have studied each other,” he said.

He said their job was made even tougher by the fact that Fighters had more experienced players who knew what to do tactically, including when and how to delay the game.

“They also had a very compact defence that easily dealt with all our aerial balls,” he said.In another game in the first division south, Mogoditshane Fighters overcame Mochudi Rovers 2-1. 

The games between Black Peril and Matebejana, Broadhurst United and Modipane Fighters as well as Red Sparks and Black Rangers were all cancelled due to waterlogged pitches. ENDS