BNFC ‘bulldoze’ Bens in Benoni Derby

The first “Benoni Derby” of the season finished 4-1 in favour of the home team meaning that Old Bens have been eliminated from the competition while Northerns advance to the next round.

Graham Turnbull opened the scoring on the night for BNFC after getting his head onto an excellent cross from the left flank .

The score would remain 1-0 going into the halftime break.

Northerns doubled their lead in the second period when Brogan Shrimpton, playing in his final match for the club as he will be departing to play in the USA in a few days time, did well to get a shot off at Old Bens’ goalkeeper Matt Carter.

The gloveman got a hand to Shrimpton’s shot, but the ball would land at the feet of Tshatsho Molapo who did the rest and made it 2-0.

As the intensity of the encounter got more and more heated the challenges in the middle of the park got more and more aggressive in typical derby fashion.

Northerns would, however, end any hopes of a comeback for Old Bens with a third goal after a sublime through ball from their captain Wade Marshall was latched on to by the pacy Shrimpton and driven past Carter between the posts.

As is the case in most big derby football matches the red card does eventually finds its way out of the referee’s pocket and this one proved to be no different.

Marshall and Old Bens forward Mohammed Brand were both sent-off after a bit of argy-bargy.

With both sides a player short Bens would eventually score a goal to make it 3-1, but that proved to be a mere consolation as Shrimpton pounced again to give Northerns a 4-1 victory over the old enemy.

The Shrimpton brace would be a fitting farewell gift from the US-bound striker.

BNFC coach Jannie van den Berg was delighted with the derby win.

“You only get one bite of the cherry in a cup game, so to get a win tonight is great,” he commented after the game.

Old Bens coach Raymond Cloete displayed opposite feelings to his coaching counterpart after the clash and said that his team showed “no effort”.

“Northerns came out from the start and just bulldozed us off the park,” he said.

“We didn’t play bad football, but we just weren’t strong enough.

“They [Northerns] played with more heart than us.”

Both teams will play ELFA Super League games on Saturday, April 25.

BNFC will travel to Delville to play Germiston while Old Bens host Sporting at Currin Park.

The next Benoni Derby, an ELFA Super League fixture, will be played at Northerns on Saturday, May 30.