First game a loss for Germiston

Germiston City Football Club faced a tough opening match of the season against the newly crowned Top Eight Champions Robertsham Callies at the Germiston City Sports Club, on Saturday.

The local team lost 2-1 to Robertsham.

Germiston started well and showed some neat, flowing football in the early stages of the game.

They did not allow Robertsham to get into any sort of flow with Germiston keeping a tight grip on the mid-field.

The opening goal came mid-way through the first half when Taboho Muso was sent down the left flank with a beautiful pass which beat the Robertsham defence and Muso slotted the goal for the home side.

Robertsham came back at Germiston, whose defence was kept busy.

Captain Comfort Molebelo was booked for what seemed a very minor offence, and approximately 15 minutes later the referee saw fit to book him for another bookable offence.

Germiston were down to 10 men with 10 minutes to go in the first half.

At half-time Germiston were still up 1-0 and coach Sreten Pavlovic must have had a good half-time talk to his players as they came out looking the better of the two sides although being a man down.

The Germiston defence were strong and held firm until 20 minutes into the second half when the Robertsham left winger let fly with a cracking shot which hit the inside of the upright and flew into the Germiston net.

Germiston carried on pushing the Robertsham defence and were unlucky on a number of occasions with Muso missing a number of opportunities.

The Germiston defence, made up of Chad Nel and Diklede Kgare, had outstanding games, giving Robertsham little chance to worry the goalkeeper.

With 10 minutes to go Germiston gave away a free kick just outside their area.

Whilst the referee held up his whistle to tell the Robertsham striker to wait for the whistle, the striker took the free kick before the whistle was blown and the keeper unprepared could only watch the ball sail into an empty net.

The referee allowed the goal much to the protest of the Germiston players.

The game deteriorated and with two minutes to go a Robertsham player found it fit to kick out at a Germiston player and then to throw a punch which saw him see a red card.

However, there was no time to exploit this as the game was just about finished.

A good display by Germiston under trying circumstances, however, the nature of Robertsham’s winning goal is a bitter pill for the players and coaches to swallow.

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