Black Leopards surrender to Celtic

Football has once again proven to be a cruel sport. Black Leopards enjoyed ball possession from the onset to the end and still suffered the pain of losing their Absa Premiership League match against Bloemfontein Celtic 1-0 at the Thohoyandou Stadium last Sunday.

Celtic created only two scoring chances in the game, one in each half, and converted one of them.

Leopards’ head coach, Mr Joel “The Prophet” Masutha, was forced to effect an early change to his starting 11. Their centre back, Jean Munganga, was taken off the pitch on a stretcher six minutes into the game after sustaining a head injury. He was replaced with Thivhavhudzi Ndou.

The visitors from Bloemfontein scored the only goal of the match after 11 minutes. Their left winger, Tshegofatso Mabasa, caught the Leopards’ keeper, King Ndlovu, off guard with a half volley.

The referee, Mr Victor Hlungwani, did the unexpected in the 28^th minute. A defender of Celtic handled the ball within his own danger area. Instead of blowing the whistle and awarding a penalty to Lidoda Duvha, Hlungwane waved a play-on signal as if nothing had happened.

Celtic effected the first change to their original line-up three minutes into the last half. They replaced the goal scorer, Tshegofatso Mabasa, with Ronald Fumbidzai. Celtic continued to play defensive football and relied on counter-attacks. The home side used their remaining two substitution chances by introducing Themba Ndlovu and Joseph Mhlongo, who replaced Karabo Tshepe and Mwape Musonda respectively.

Phathutshedzo Nange, the Leopards’ sharpshooter, was unlucky on three occasions. His bicycle kick missed the target by inches in the 69^th minute.

Celtic applied delaying tactics in the last 15 minutes of the game. Their keeper, Patrick Tignyemb, was booked for wasting time late in the game. He took his time before taking the goal kick, prompting the referee to flash yellow.

Sport - Date: 20 September 2018

Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990.  He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

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