Mntambo earns Pirates a draw against Royal AM

Orlando Pirates had to fight their way back into the game to claim a draw with Royal AM, as the sides played to a 1-1 draw at the Orlando Stadium on Thursday night.

It was not a good start for the Buccaneers, as the visitors scored first thanks to Levy Mashiane, but Pirates responded with an equaliser just before half-time from a Linda Mntambo strike.

Bucs are now on a four games winless streak in the league, while the KwaZulu-Natal based outfit have gone six games unbeaten.

Pirates remain in seventh place with 11 points after eight games, while Royal are in fourth place after collecting 14 points from the same number of matches as Pirates.

From the first whistle, there was already a lot of action in this tie, but it was Tshegofatso Mabasa who got a golden opportunity in the first three minutes of the game after a sloppy mistake from Royal in defence, but the striker’s shot went wide.

In the 20^th minute, Pirates also made a mistake at the back which saw Victor Letsoalo running towards Pirates’ goals before going down in the box with Happy Jele, but the Royal striker’s penalty shout was not entertained by referee Luxolo Badi.

A miscommunication by Jele and goalkeeper Siyabonga Mpontshane in the 32^nd minute inside Pirates box, saw Letsoalo picking up Mashiane, who tapped into an empty net from close range to give the visitors a lead.

After numerous chances, Pirates finally levelled the scores through Mntambo from long range just as the game was going into half-time to make it 1-1.

Bucs suffered a huge blow in the 50^th minute when Jele was forced out of the game due to an injury and he was replaced by Thulani Hlatshwayo.

Just after the half hour mark, Nyame made a great save to deny Mabasa from putting Pirates in the lead inside the box. The save also made sure the KwaZulu-Natal outfit remained in the game.

Both teams went hard in search of a winning goal, but nothing came out of their efforts, leaving them to share the spoils.