Boksburg FC U19 progressed to the semi-finals of the Easterns Local Football Association (ELFA) plate trophy after thrashing Katlehong Junior Stars 6-1 at Boksburg City Stadium on August 21.
With Boksburg FC coming from a 3-2 loss at Katlehong in the final game of the league against their cup rivals Katlehong Junior Stars, Boksburg FC was in high spirits to finish the game and qualify for the semis.
The game started at a high tempo with both coaches knowing each other well in terms of tactics and style of play.
Boksburg FC combinations in the middle of the park worked well for the team as their midfielders found pocket spaces between the Katlehong defenders which resulted in a goal by Gopolang Mhlongo.
Mhlongo had a great first half after registering a second goal with a well-slotted strike that left the Katlehong keeper in no man’s land.
With minutes before the first half whistle, a well-taken corner kick found Manuele Mollo who converted and gave Boksburg FC a three-goal lead.
The second half kicked off with Katlehong looking to register a goal in their name but the Kian Murphy goal added woes to Katlehong as they now had to score more than four goals if they wanted to proceed to the next round.
The skipper of Boksburg FC added to the team’s tally as he scored the fifth goal of the Blues.
With few minutes from the final whistle, a sloppy defensive error from Boksburg resulted in Katlehong getting their first goal of the match which changed the tempo of the game for a few minutes as they started attacking the Boksburg team.
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Murphy registered his brace to put the final nail in the coffin and help the team go to the semi-finals of the plate trophy.
Coach Simphiwe Mgetyengana said the technical team was impressed with the performance of their boys going to the semi-finals.
“Fitness has been an issue during the season because players had to juggle between school and soccer but now there’s more hunger from the players.
“We have prepared well coming to this game because we knew how competitive our opponent can be and what threat they pose to us, so we had to prepare our boys well.
“We lost the chance of winning the league due to the defeat when playing against Katlehong. We wanted to rectify those mistakes and surely, we did,” said Mgetyengana.
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