Bedfordview’s JVW FC came up against Wits Ladies FC to a 1-0 win in a 2018/19 Sasol Women’s League fixture on June 22.
For both sides, the match shaped up to be one of their more highly contested encounters as passion stood up against passion in the teams’ search for the opener through the first half, and large parts of the second.
Opportunities came in droves on both ends, yet the scorers had been unscathed come the break.
It was ultimately the Bedfordview-based JVW’s Jessica Wade whose boot would find the head of Nicole Irwin, who coolly guided the ball from a curling free-kick solidly into the top right corner of the net.
This came in the 87th minute and meant JVW would keep a clean sheet at the conclusion of their 10th match this season.
The team now boasts nine wins and a solitary defeat for a points tall of 27 points, with 20 games to go.
Wits Ladies FC, which are unnerved following the result, will look to continue their charge in what is for them a debut campaign.
The 0-1 losing result was anything but a reflection of the tumultuous, but mostly inspiring season the girls have thus far set sail on, according to the team’s head coach Nthabeleng ‘Dunga’ Modiko.
She waxed lyrical of the grit and determination the team have displayed through the course of the season.
Dunga singled out this performance, and one or two others before as among the ‘three best games’ the team has ever played.
But trudging now only halfway into the league season, Dunga’s chargers have every chance of gnawing their way into the top four.
The team currently lie in 9th position on the overall league standings, only two points behind eighth place Blue Birds Ladies FC and a further eight points behind JVW in fourth with five wins to their credit from the 13 games played.
For Modiko, her side could not have made such a profound statement any earlier, in what is (again) their debut season at the highest provincial women’s league in the country.
“We’ve [so far] done the best that we could’ve done to stake a claim and introduce ourselves to the league, and to everyone that cared to listen or to know about us,” said Modiko.
“We are called the newbies and I think so far the newbies have settled nicely into his thing.”
With upcoming fixtures to Hallelujah Zebra Force on June 30 and Blue Birds Ladies at home on July 6, both of which will close the lid on the first half of the league season, the coach said she and her staff will be hard on planning an assault for the second and final half.
“We would like to finish on a high come the end of the season. Possibly top five or top four. This won’t be entirely impossible because the players that we have are young and energetic, and are players that are fully advanced when it comes to understanding what the game is about,” said Modiko.
