Royal Cubs scramble in last minute
Mlambo Royal Cubs bounced back to their winning ways when they beat Middelplaas Black Pirates 3-0 at Driekoppies Stadium on Monday.
This was after last week’s poor performance which almost ended the defending champions’ title run.
Impressive and polished, they comprehensively reminded all the title contenders that they were still in it and were determined to win it.
Despite the expectation of Black Pirates being a walkover for Mlambo RC, the latter kept it together and took the game to the defending champions. However, Mlambo RC started to put foot to pedal after 11 minutes of play, and created some impressive scoring opportunities.
They had three chances in the opening six minutes, but all went wide at goal or just fell kindly for Pirates’ last defence, Hawukelo Msibi.
A poor attempt at distributing the ball almost put Mlambo in the lead when Msibi put the ball at the feet of unmarked William Nkosi, who was dispossessed while attempting to create space for a shot.
After 20 minutes of play Pirates began to find their feet, threatening Mlambo defence and ensuring most of the game was played in their half.
Pirates’ first serious attempt at goal came at the 30-minute mark, only to fail.
The teams went into the half-time break drawn at 0-0, both still determined to win.
When the match resumed in the second half, Mlambo were pushed up against the wall in the opening
10 minutes. A header from Vusimuzi Nkosi of Pirates, was enough to wake up goalkeeper Fanie Ndlovu.
They began to dominate possession when the match entered the 70-minute mark.
They were rewarded for their relentless attack when Roggert Nyunda led a two-on-one attack, which resulted in Msibi attempting to defend the post on Nyunda, who passed the ball to Nkosi, forcing Msibi to go down before the shot was taken.
Nkosi opened the goalscoring and from there on it became one-way traffic towards Pirates with Sifiso Shabalala and skipper Felani Mahlalela coming onto the scoreboard 10 minutes before the end of the match.
