Polokwane in danger of falling into relegation battle

by Brian Lee

Friday Mar 16, 2018. 22:11

Polokwane City are in danger of falling into the relegation battle after losing 2-1 to Maritzburg United in an Absa Premeirship match at the Harry Gwala Stadium on Friday night.

The loss sees Polokwane remain in 11^th place on the league table, but in real danger of falling into the relegation battle – currently Rise and Shine are only three points above the relegation zone.

Maritzburg , on the other hand, are up to third on the table with the win on 38 points, at least until Free State Stars are in action on Saturday.

The home side got off to the perfect start and took the lead seven minutes into the game after Pogiso Sanoka poked the ball home from close range following a goalmouth scramble at a corner-kic, 1-0.

Andrea Fileccia should have doubled Maritzburg’s lead five minutes later when he was played through on goal, but he was superbly denied by the Polokwane keeper George Chigova in a one-on-one situation.

In the 26^th minute Maritzburg suffered a bit of a set-back when Brian Onyango had to leave the field injured and was replaced by Rushine De Reuck.

Polokwane’s only decent chance of the half came in the 31^st minute when Walter Musona curled a 24-yard free-kick inches wide of the post.

The half ended 1-0 in favour of Maritzburg.

It was a slow start to the second half with the first decent effort of the stanza coming in the 58^th minute when Mekoa saw a long range effort cleared off the Polokwane goalline by Thabiso Semenya.

In the 75^th minute Maritzburg did doubled their lead when a long ball from the back by Richard Ofori saw Siphesihle Ndlovu in behind the defence and he made no mistake with just the keeper to beat, 2-0.

Polokwane tried to find their way back into the game after that and did manage to find a consolation goal in the 87^th minute courtesy of Muhammad Sulumba, but it was too little too late as the game ended 2-1.

Maritzburg (1) 2 (Sanoka 7’, Ndlovu 75’)

Polokwane (0) 1 (Sulumba 87’)

Teams

Maritzburg: Ofori, Onyango (De Reuck 26’), Xulu, Sanoka, Makaringe, Maboe, Ndlovu, Shandu, Mekoa, Fillecia (Kunene 70’), Mokate (Twala 90’).

Polokwane: Chigova, Semenya, Hlongwane, Tshilo, Manaka, Seabi, Ramagalela, Phiri, Sulumba (Chungwa 89’), Musona (Miya 82’), Tlolane (Mngomezulu 76’).