Benoni Northerns Football Club’s first XI continued a recent three-game league winning run, with a solid 5-3 victory against Union FC, at Northern Areas, on Saturday, August 2.
The team cannot win the ELFA Super League Seniors Division One, but are aiming to finish as high as possible on the league table.
Coach Flavio Mariuzzi was made to field a weaker than usual starting line-up and was pleased with the way his players performed on Saturday.
The under-strength Northerns went 2-0 down within the first 20 minutes, with the Union goals coming against the run of play, at a time when the home team had created numerous scoring opportunities, but failed to shoot and take advantage of their chances.
They felt they were back in the game when Joel Nchableng took the score to 2-1, but a spill from BNFC goalkeeper Dean Workman allowed the visitors to tap in a goal and go into the halftime break 3-1 up.
During his halftime talk Mariuzzi urged his players to make the most of their shooting opportunities when they were in the opponents penalty box, and this seemed to spark his team into life.
Tumelo Makwakwa bagged Northerns’ second goal, with a sublime free kick that found the top corner from about 35m out, and put his team back into contention.
The home side were then awarded a spot kick that was duly put into goal by Cameron McMillan, to level the tally at 3-3.
Following the equaliser, Michael Edwards, playing just behind the front striker, bagged a terrific brace to give Benoni Northerns a positive 5-3 result.
“It was our third win in a row and the nine points from these games has given us a huge boost,” Mariuzzi said.
“We have a lot of home games coming up and I am positive that we can get good results at home.
“The performance itself was particularly good, considering that we were 3-1 down at the half time break and had just come off elimination from the Cup, last weekend.”
He added that his Man of the Match award went to Edwards, for his two goals and an overall strong display on Saturday.
The team will travel to Corinthians this weekend, and will strive to keep the momentum going.
- The Benoni Northerns second team were defeated 1-0 by Union FC, on Saturday.
