WATCH: Old Bens, Northerns open 2018 league campaign with victories

Old Bens Football Club kicked-off their 2018 Eastern Local Football Association (ELFA) Senior Super League and Super Reserve League campaigns on March 3.

Coach Raymond Cloete’s first XI faced Robertsham at Currin Park in what is always a fiery encounter.

Despite being as red-hot as ever, with no less than three red cards dished out by the referee (two for Robertsham and one for Old Bens), the hosts showed that they were the better team on the day, securing a 2-0 victory to claim their first three points of the year.

Coach Dave Clark’s reserve team were defeated 2-1 in the preceding match.

The first half of the first team encounter ended goalless, with not too many testing chances for the goalkeepers to deal with, but Bens started putting the foot down on the gas pedal in the second stanza.

Excellent passing and good pressure, whenever the opponents were on the ball, allowed them to take charge of proceedings.

Bens started finding joy on the flanks and scored early into the second period through left midfielder Nkululeko ‘Shoes’ Mkhubo who tucked home a good cross from Lesego ‘Wii’ Mlangeni to make it 1-0.

Soon after, new striker Themba Vilakazi doubled the advantage.

Their task was made a bit easier after the second goal when the referee gave two Robertsham players their marching orders with about 20 minutes remaining.

Using their numerical advantage, Cloete’s team showed good match-management ability to see out the match.

Cloete also introduced 15-year-old Owen Evans to the fray in the last 10 minutes for his first taste of senior club football.

“We were on top for the whole game and played the best football, but they looked dangerous from corners and set pieces because of their height,” said the coach.

“There was always a chance they could get a goal back so we had to be good at the back and get numbers behind the ball.”

There is a tangible confidence in the team, which lifted the pre-season ELFA Top Eight competition trophy the weekend prior.

Although there is an extremely long way to go in the league competition, coach Raymond Cloete is thrilled with the attitude of his players thus far.

“The guys are superbly fit and have been training very hard.

“They’ve really put the effort in and it showed in the second half.”

Cloete will expect his team to keep up their momentum when they travel to Corinthians on March 10.

LISTEN to the Caxton Radio Benoni weekend sports wrap to hear more from Cloete:

https://soundcloud.com/benoni-city-times/logie-g-sports-wrap-march-5

• Meanwhile Bens’ local rivals Benoni Northerns played Boksburg at the City Stadium in Boksburg.

Coach Darren Lee’s reserve XI bagged their first win with a score of 3-2 while coach Jannie van den Berg’s men turned it on in the second half (after leading 1-0 at half time) to romp to a 6-1 away win.

They will travel to Bedfordview on Saturday for the second of four straight away matches in the league.

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