11 Feb 2020

 Township Rollers has advanced to the Mascom Top 8 final, albeit suffering a 1-0 defeat to 10-man BDF XI in the Mascom Top 8 semi-final second-leg at Lobatse Sports Complex on February 9.

Rollers sealed a 3-2 aggregate victory to advance to the final where they will meet Orapa United on March 7 at the Obed Itani Chilume Sports Complex in Francistown. 

It is the sixth time Rollers will be playing in the Mascom Top 8 final since the competition was introduced in 2012.

Rollers head coach, Frank Nuttall said there was room for improvement in his team, adding though that he was delighted with the club. 

“The players worked very hard. We always knew it was going to be a tough task because BDF wanted the chance to try to make it to the final. 

Well done to them for giving us a tough match. But the important thing is to be in the final. 

That’s good and we are happy to be in the final,” he said in a post-match interview.

He said they were not a finished article so there was always room for improvement in every team, in every level.

The Scotland-born Nuttall said next weekend, the week after that, and so on and so forth they will keep trying to improve.

BDF XI, who came into the match trailing 3-1 from the first-leg, took the lead through Godiraone Modingwane in the sixth minute. 

The midfielder collected a pass on the edge of the box from Oratile Taunyane and fired a rocket past Rollers goalkeeper Kabelo Dambe. 

The early goal threw the tie wide open, but the two teams were cagey and did not create too many scoring opportunities. 

Rollers almost equalised in the 17^th minute when a free-kick by left-back Onkarabile Ratanang hit the cross bar with BDF XI goalkeeper Tumiso Mashakola well beaten. 

Ratanang came agonisingly close with another free-kick in the second half while Mashakola produced good saves to keep the BDF XI lead intact. 

Godfrey Tauyatswala had a glorious opportunity to double the lead for ‘Matebele’ in the 75^th minute after Arnold Mampori miskicked the ball, but the opportunity drifted away after the youngster chose to square the ball instead of shooting inside the penalty area.

BDF XI finished with 10 men after centre-back Onkabetse Seforo received a second booking in the 85^th minute after tripping Tumisang Orebonye.

Though happy with the victory, BDF XI head coach Letang Kgengwenyane said he was sad to have lost out on reaching the final. 

“I am not happy because I wanted to advance. We wanted to make sure we didn’t concede today, which we did. 

We also wanted a minimum of two goals, but we didn’t achieve that,” he said. Kgengwenyane said there was too much anxiety from his players and they ended up playing long balls, which worked to Rollers’ advantage.ENDS