The good and the bad of KPFC’s 2019 season
A top-five finish this season would be incredible.
With the 2019 soccer season something of the past, Kempton Park Football Club (KPFC) reflects on the season.
SAB Castle League
The SAB Castle League side finished in a creditable ninth spot in their first season back. The effort of the coaching staff, Eddie Dista and Andile Mehlomakhulu, and players is highly commended. The new league has started once more and Kempton Park went top of the SAB Ekurhuleni League after beating Olympia 2-1 on Friday.
A top-five finish this season would be incredible.
ILFA Super League
The super league season finished somewhat disappointingly, with Kempton Park ending fifth after being top or second for most of the season.
Late-season injuries and player commitment issues let coach John Mann down and the good work done in the first half of the season was undone in the latter stages.
On a more positive note, Kempton defeated all the teams above them in the table bar. Zivai Verenga was the league’s leading scorer, bagging 31 goals.
ILFA Reserve League
The reserves ended in a disappointing 10th place after a tough season where many of the young players failed to adapt to the rigour of super league football. Commitment problems caused coach Luyanda Mehlomakhulu untold problems.
There is a mountain of potential in this young team and hopefully this will manifest itself in results next season.
Easterns Division One
After winning Easterns Division Two the previous season, the now Division One side fared fairly well, finishing fifth in a difficult league won by Benfica of Actonville.
Scoring was a mitigating factor in the team’s league position, with only 36 goals scored in 18 games. A staunch defence that only conceded 31 enabled the side to produce nail-biting victories.
Easterns Division Three
The KOBs, or Kempton Park fourth team, romped away with the title after trailing Alberton and Benoni Northerns for long periods. They ended the season with nine straight wins and scored 99 goals.
Top marksman was Warren Gardner with 41 goals. The team was also defensively tight, only conceding 26 times in a 22-game season.
Congratulations to Trevor Botha and Phil Baird who started up and kept the side going throughout.
This team will now compete in Division Two next season.
Women’s Premier League
The team competed in the Easterns Premier League and finished third behind Corinthians (essentially Black Aces Academy) and Janine van Wyk Seniors, which is itself was a great effort.
Juniors
U-6 eigth; u-7A sixth; u-7B bottom of their league; u-8s were the stars of the junior season, winning all 22 league games, scoring 137 times and allowing only 16 past them; u-9 ninth; u-10 fourth; u-11 seventh; u-12 second; u-13 sixth; u-15A second; u-15B sixth; and u-17 fifth.
The management would like to thank all the coaches for their hard, often thankless, work over the season, as well as the parents and sponsors who saw the teams through.
