Maritzburg coach Middendorp happy to have won ‘aggressive’ KZN derby

The Maritzburg United and Golden Arrows clash are always full of drama and hostile, which is exactly what was expected, says Maritzburg United head coach Ernst Middendorp following his side’s 3-2 win in the KwaZulu-Natal derby at the Harry Gwala Stadium on Wednesday.

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There seemed to be a lot of word exchange on the sidelines during the match from both sides of the bench with Middendorp ending up getting a yellow card.

The drama in that tie brought back memories from 2016, when both coaches were involved in an altercation during a league match in 2016, when Ncikazi was still an assistant at the club to back then coach Clinton Larsen.

After that game five years ago, Middendorp claimed that Ncikazi kicked him on his face.

Luckily though, this time around there were no exchange of blows around with the action on the field much more exhilarating with goals scored on the day which pleased the German coach as the Team of Choice walked away with maximum points.

“As expected, very aggressive more and more. I’m saying it is expected because it is a local derby. These games…Arrows against AmaZulu are always special to us. In the end, we took it well, we scored three goals and defended our lead after conceding a penalty in the final stage of the game,” said Middendorp after the game.

“But, well done so far. It was a good fighting spirit we’ve seen from the team. In this stage (of the league) it’s not about nice soccer, it’s about winning the game and that was our main goal and we’ve done it.”

On the losing side, Ncikazi was not pleased with the behaviour of the ball boys and says they had an influence on the momentum of the match which ended up favouring the home side.

“Disappointed on how the ball boys are trained to play with their team, they also had a role to play today. That part needs to be controlled. The ball boys should only facilitate the game, not try to influence it – how slow and how quick it’s played,” said the Arrows coach.