Birds have their wings clipped

Blue Birds failed to secure their spot in the next round of the Nedbank Cup tournament when they suffered a 4-2 loss due to penalties to Schoemansdal Junior Aces last Sunday.

From the onset Aces made their intentions clear, dominating the game from kick-off and opening the score after 23 minutes.

The goal came as a result of constant pressure and loss of concentration from Birds players.

As the frustration grew, tempers flared which resulted in one of their players being red carded. Aces took advantage of the one-man short team, extending their lead by two goals and going into half-time with 3-0 to them.

In the second half Aces looked complacent, playing as if they had already secured a spot in the next round of the Nedbank tourney.

This gave the visitors a chance to regroup and capitalise on the Aces’ lack of momentum.

Birds were given a lifeline when the referee awarded them a penalty after Aces defender fouled one of their strikers in the area box and received a red card.

A brilliantly taken penalty brought Birds into the game, and seemed to have motivated their players to seek another goal, and keep entering the Aces box.

A second goal for the squad left Aces shouting at one another.

Amid their infighting, their opponents scored their third goal and forced the game to extra time, where none of the teams was able to finding the deciding goal.

Blue Birds coach, Johnny Mashabane, said his team would have won the game in 90 minutes if his players didn’t relax after equalising.

“Since it was an away game, I also suspect that my players were discouraged when Aces supporters booed us,” Mashabane said.

Junior Aces coach, Douglas Shongwe said the mistake occurred when they made wrong substitutions.

“I thought that we’d already won the game and decided to rest some of my key players, not knowing that my opponents had a plan B in the second half.”