Soweto Fabulous Ladies whitewash Alex’s Birds in Sasol Women’s League

Two goals in each half were enough to see Soweto Fabulous Ladies complete a fabulous drubbing of an inexperienced Bluebirds Ladies, the bulk of whose players come from the club’s development side.

The Beautiful Birds as they are often referred to in this iconic township of Alexandra which is the bedrock of all things cultural, musical, dance, theatre, and sport, were clobbered 4–0 in their own backyard, Alexandra Stadium.

The ninth-placed side in the Gauteng Sasol Women’s League suffered this humiliating defeat in the third match of the second round of this provincial league. The Birds started with one player short as their keeper, Mpho Teffo arrived late.

Fabulous’ Delina ‘Long Tom’ Lunga opened the scoring as early as in the ninth minute of the game when she struck a tame shot, but Faith Nthite, the stand-in keeper bungled the ball and it crossed the line.

In the dying minutes of the first half, Birds’ Rejoice ‘Woza 7′ Ramodiba handled inside the box and the referee never hesitated in pointing to the spot and Nolwazi Mathebula stepped up to take the penalty and made no mistake in putting her side 2–0 up.

Before the referee could blow for half time, one of the Birds’ prodigies of the development side Lindokuhle Madhlopa could have pulled one back for the Banyana baMalvin, as the Birds are sometimes referred to after their coach Malvin Khumalo, if she had put some power into her shot.

Just before the end of the first half, Birds’ keeper Teffo arrived and she replaced Nthite. Teffo had to make numerous saves in the remaining 10 minutes of the first stanza.

At the start of the second half, Lunga could have scored her brace to put her team 3–0 ahead but she misdirected her header over the crossbar.

Mahlodi Majola missed a glorious opportunity to open the scoring for the Birds when she was one-on-one with the keeper but instead of picking a spot, she directed it to the keeper.

Nthite was also a culprit of Birds’ numerous missed chances as she could not hit the target with her powerful shot while at the other end of the pitch the Birds keeper almost gifted the visitors with their third goal when she fumbled in handling the ball but finally grabbed it the second time around with a Fabulous striker lurking.

Two quick goals in the dying minutes of the second half came from the boot of Dalence Maringa who made no mistake from a pass by Lungile ‘Sgqisha’ Mthethwa, who was a thorn in the flesh of the Birds along with Lunga, and then Lunga managed her brace for the 4–0 drubbing.

Birds skipper Meisie Stewart was at a loss for words as to what happened in this game despite the fact that the girls played some beautiful football with neat passes and good control of the ball and at times defended very well.

“Given time, I am sure we shall mature and play with rhythm and purpose. Maybe inexperience also comes into play here but each day is a learning curve for us and we become wiser with each game,” she said.

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