A rescheduled derby match took place on August 19 at Hattingh Park in Primrose and the Janine van Wyk (JVW) women arrived in their bright new kit, ready for a tough match against Luso Africa.
In a derby game, league position means little more than the paper it’s printed on, this was a turf war.
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After their respective warm-ups, the teams made their way to the field where Luso Africa took the kick-off.
It wasn’t long before the home team were dispossessed and the ball reached Indira Albuquerque down the line.
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In true winger style, she cut across her opponent forcing a rather harsh foul for which a penalty was awarded.
Captain Nompumelelo Nyandeni stepped up and expertly placed the ball into the net from the penalty spot within two minutes of the match.
From the restart, JVW applied the necessary pressure to regain possession and continued forward to create chances, although a few runs were called offside and some balls were intercepted by the Luso defence.
In the 27th minute, Albuquerque was in the action again, this time passing her defender to deliver the ball across the box to the ever-present Amanda Dlamini.
It was an easy knock in for Dlamini.
Ten minutes later it was Jermaine Seoposenwe who got in on goal and buried her effort, a gift for her tireless running throughout the half.
Thirty-seven minutes in, straight after the restart, it was Seoposenwe on the run again, this time providing assistance for JVW top goal scorer Gabriela Salgado to add another to her tally.
Luso too had opportunities to go forward but lacked competition in the aerial battles against Irwin and Ntsibande.
On other occasions when they did get higher up the field, JVW goalkeeper Cailin Whyte was on hand to clean up.
At half-time, the score was 4-0.
Going into the second half, JVW looked to compact the game and conserve energy knowing they have two games coming up.
More runs, more balls through, opportunities created, shots wide and some great goalkeeping from the opposition kept JVW at bay for long periods.
A ring of changes gave the travelling substitutes some vital minutes to keep their match fitness up.
Nyandeni then took it upon herself to increase JVW’s lead, running through the opposition lines and slotting another to take her birthday tally to two in 80 minutes of the match.
In the final minutes of the game, Nyandeni again managed a lone break through Luso’s defences and unselfishly rolled the ball back to Alochia Thobokela.
She had the honour of sealing the final goal, bagging her fourth in two games.
All in all a good day over the highway at Hattingh Park for JVW.
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