26 Mar 2023

VTM, fondly known as Bafana Ba Dijabane to their hordes of fans, inched into the top four bracket of the hotly contested Debswana First Division South league campaign following a resounding 3-0 victory over Notwane.

The clash, played at the VTM arena Saturday afternoon, drew a pleasing crowd among them Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare.

The win took VTM to position four on the log on 28 points just a point below third placed Crackit City Pollar and a point above fifth placed Mochudi Centre Chiefs.

Chiefs and Crackit City Pollar shared the spoils in Mochudi same afternoon.

At the VTM arena, it was the home team who staged the first scare in the opening minutes following a high rising header from attacker Bogosi Nfila.

Notwane shrugged off the nervous start and strung together a couple of good passes inside the opponents’ danger area while absorbing pressure from the home side’s attack.

After a couple of attempts to infiltrate the visitors’ danger area, it was Ernest Tawazadza who rose above his markers and looped a beautiful header past Tumiso Mashakola to open the account for his team.

Moments later, Sifiso Myeni, connected a well laid cross from the far right to extend his team’s lead.

With a comfortable scoreline VTM sat back and absorbed pressure from Sechaba, as Notwane is affectionately known. It was 2-0 going into the break.

The homeside sprung to life after a quiet first half throwing in the speedy Senatla Molefe for Tawazadza who had seemingly ran out of steam.

At the last hurdle, newly introduced exciting midfielder Lucky Mokoena peeled off one challenge inside the box and completed a beautifully worked out passing game by tapping past Mashakola for his team’s third and last.

In a post-match interview, VTM’s new gaffer, Leutlwetse Tshireletso, said they were happy with the maximum points and the clean sheet.

“We had to take advantage of the home ground. We needed the three points and we are also treating every game as the final match,” said an ecstatic Tshireletso.

 Tshireletso was on his second assignment following last week’s 1-0 victory away to Gabane Santos.

“I’m instilling the winning mentality. We are still in the rebuilding process and we shall take one game at a time as there’s still so much room for improvement both collectively and individually,” added Tshireletso.

He said they were not in any pressure for promotion, but were yearning for a respectable position at the end of the campaign.

In other league games played on Saturday log leaders Matebele stayed atop after a 2-0 victory against bottom placed Black Rangers. Young Stars beat Tlokweng United 2-1 while Matebejana beat Broadhurst United 1-0.  ENDS