Ezenkosi suffers first defeat at home
Jomo Cosmos (Ezenkosi’s) hopes of playing in the NFD promotion play-offs suffered a huge blow as Ezenkosi endured their first defeat at the hands of the log leaders, Highlands Park (The Lions), at Vosloorus Stadium on February 18.
The 4-0 humiliation was the first defeat Ezenkosi suffered since they returned to use the Vosloorus Stadium as their home ground.
Two goals in each half ended Ezenkosi’s 10 unbeaten run at home.
The first goal from the Lions came in the 32nd minute after a good strike from Mothobi Mvala from outside the box to make it 1-0.
Six minutes later, the Namibian striker Peter Shalulile caught Ezenkosi defenders napping and headed home the second goal of the match. The score was 2-0 to the visiting team.
Ezenkosi defender Ange Libahi received a second yellow card and the referee gave him his marching orders in the form of a red card. This happened 15 minutes after the start of the second half.
The visitors took advantage of the 10 wounded Ezenkosi men and netted in another two goals – one from Sphiwe Mahlangu and the fourth one from Sabelo Nyembe.
The home side played poorly on the day and made no threat at all to the visitors’ goalkeeper, Tapuwa Kapini.
Thato Lengwati, the Cosmos captain, admitted afterwards that they had played poorly on the day and pointing out that their plan did not work for them. “We had a game plan but it did not work for us as the visitors were stronger than we were,” said Lengwati.
He said visitors threw a lot of their attacking players at them. “They ran into space at any given opportunity.”
However, Lengwati still has hopes that his team can still turn the tables around. “We have nine more games to play, so anything can still happen. What we need to do is to fight for the second or third place finish so that we can qualify for play-offs,” he said.
The result of the game left Ezenkosi in the fifth position on the log with 30 points after 21 games.
The Lions are leading comfortably at the top of the log with 44 points after 21 games. They are nine points clear to the nearest chasers, the Real Kings, who are number two on the log with 35 points after 21 games.
