Croesus technical bench spits fire
Croesus Ladies team manager Maria Athanassouli believes her team is targeted for her outbursts over misdemeanours.
An incensed technical bench of Croesus Ladies was spitting fire soon after its final make-or-break Stream B match against Alexandra’s FC Raycon Ladies in the Gauteng Sasol Women’s League played at the Alexandra Stadium on July 14.
At stake was a berth for the play-offs against the winner of Stream A which will determine the side that qualifies for the national play-offs.
The outcome of this match was crucial as ultimately, it would determine the team that gets promoted to the top tier of women’s football – the Hollywoodbets Super League.
With that in mind, a battle royal of a game was in hand and Raycon started the game like a house on fire and dominated the entire first half and managed to score a crucial penalty goal from the boot of Tshepang Masimula in the dying minutes of the first stanza.
The game’s second stanza belonged to the Greek Queens as they piled pressure in search of an equaliser and an ultimate winning goal. The Greek Queens got what they thought was an equalising goal but the effort was disallowed as the referee ruled offside after his linesman had raised the flag.
Soon after the resumption, they were rewarded with a beautifully taken free-kick way before the box by the stocky Nombuso Malesa. The ball dipped timeously to beat Raycon keeper Moikano Diale to rattle the back of the net.
When the final whistle blew to signal the end of the battle, furious technical staff of the Greek Queens led by its coach Khanyisa ‘Barnes’ Qina and team manager Maria Athanassouli spat fire over the referee’s decisions to disallow their goal and deny, according to them, them a legitimate penalty during the game.
“I am disappointed, to say the least, by the referee’s decisions of the day in this crucial game,” Qina bemoaned.
Athanassouli added, “This is the kind of treatment we have been getting from the referees year in and year out over many years. I guess my team is being punished for my vocal stance in raising these misdemeanours all the time they occur.”
Raycon will now face Stream A winner Mita Ladies to determine who goes to the national playoffs from Gauteng, while Croesus said they will complain to Safa over the referee’s handling of the game.
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