Relegation-threatened Gunners put up a spirited performance to neutralise the mighty Malandela Mighty Heroes despite succumbing to 1–0 defeat in another Alex derby of the SAB League played at the Alexandra Stadium.
Goal-shy Gunners could have been three goals or so up before Mighty Heroes found the back of the net after 30 minutes of play in this tightly contested game. This through the boot of Thabang Mphahlele who slotted the ball home from an awkward angle. In the first round of the league, Mighty Heroes were runaway 5–1 winners over Gunners.
Gunners’ Mosimanegape Segage was one of the chief culprits of the missed opportunities as he either shot wide of the posts or ballooned his attempts at scoring.
Segage’s teammate Nkosinathi Hlongwane was gifted the ball from a bad pass by a Mighty Heroes player just outside the 18-yard area but failed to make good use of the gift, allowing Mighty Heroes’ Kgotsofalo Maboea to recover and stop him in his tracks.
An overzealous Mighty Heroes keeper Simphiwe ‘Shaka’ Seneme who constantly left his goal area, received a rebuke from his coach as it was felt he could cost them the game.
Before his eventual substitution, Heroes’ Sithuli Zulu, a former Bidvest Wits and Alex Black Aces development player, struck a beauty of a shot inside the box that was safely collected by the alert Gunners keeper, Mahlatse Lebepe.
Mighty Heroes’ dreadlocked Nkateko Phandeka appeared to be the weakest link of the sometimes mean machine after constantly losing the ball or making bad passes that tended to gift the opponents with possession in crucial positions. He received a talking to from his coach after the game.
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In this Alex replica of the Soweto derby in which Mighty Heroes are considered as the AmaKhosi of Alex and Gunners as the Buccaneers, it had all the ingredients of a lively Soweto derby though with only a handful of noisy spectators who shouted their own instructions from the grandstands.
At the end of it, both coaches, Vincent ‘Young Master’ Rammoni of Mighty Heroes and Sechaba Mothibi of Gunners exhibited great sportsmanship as they shared jokes about the highs and lows of the game and also agreed to be jointly interviewed by this reporter.
Rammoni wished Gunners well in their endeavour to avoid relegation and hoped they could manage to collect the points they needed to avoid the dreaded chop.
“I am hopeful they will manage this well if they can carry over today’s performance into their remaining games,” Rammoni said, to which Mothibi replied, “I pray we do as the more Alex teams we have in this league the better.”
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