Mpumalanga Aces leave the Free State Stars in the dust
The Free State Stars struggle continued on Monday when they suffered a third successive Absa Premiership loss, going down 1-0 away to Mpumalanga Black Aces at the KaNyamazane Stadium.
AmaZayoni’s Mbulelo Mabizela scored his first
goal for the club, handing the Mpumalanga side a victory which sends them –
temporarily at least – into the top half of the league log.
The first half
ended goalless and the experienced few efforts on goal from either team. The
first shot in anger arrived on 12th minute from Aces Eddie Naglo, but it was
straight at goalkeeper Daniel Agyei.
The Ghanaian keeper made another
straightforward save from Sandile Zuke – a first-half substitute for Clifford
Ngobeni – 10 minutes before the break, while Ngalo headed wide of the target
from a corner kick in the 42nd minute.
AmaZayoni continued to look the more
dangerous team going forward in the second half, and they finally broke the
deadlock with just over 20 minutes of regulation time to play.
Mulenga
provided a great cross from a right-sided corner kick and defender Mbulelo
Mabizela managed to find the back of the net with a header, putting the
Mpumalanga side 1-0 up.
Black Aces (0) 1 (Mabizela 69′)
Free State Stars
0.
Aces: Nhlapo, Mabaso, Mabizela, Nato, Kobola, Ngalo, Ngobeni (Zuke 22′),
Zwane, Nale (Qalinge 54′), Okonkwo and Mulenga
Stars: Agyei, Wiltwer,
Ouro-Akoriko, Shabalala, Thebakang, Venter, Masehe, Sekola (Esterhuizen 65′),
Mashego, Abdul-Basit and Abraw (Mokoena 63′).
