Swallows hold 10-man Pirates to a draw in original Soweto derby

Following the loss to Sekhukhune United in their previous DStv Premiership game, Orlando Pirates were expected to bounce back to winning ways against Moroka Swallows but it wasn’t to be as they were held to a 1-1 draw by the Dube Birds at the Dobsonville Stadium on Wednesday night.

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Having come under fire for resting the Bafana contingent of Tapelo Xoki, Nkosinathi Sibisi, Thabang Monare and Patrick Maswanganyi for the game against Sekhukhune, Pirates coach Jose Riveiro decided to start with three of them against Swallows. Xoki, Sibisi and Maswanganyi all started the game.

But it was Swallows who almost had a perfect start to the game when Sipho Chaine’s poor clearance was intercepted by Jacob Everson, but Pirates were saved by the crossbar in the first minute of the match.

The near miss seemed to take the Buccaneers by surprise and they almost took the lead in the 21st minute when Kabelo Dlamini’s near perfect cross found Tshegofatso Mabasa inside the Swallows box, but his header went narrowly wide of goals.

Swallows took the lead against six minutes later when Chaine miscued the ball following a back pass. This time the the goalkeeper was not lucky as Lindokuhle Mtshali pounced on the ball and beat him with a low shot.

Letsie Koapeng wasted a good chance to double the Birds’ lead in the 31st minute when he shot straight at Chaine following a mistake by Sibisi at the back for Pirates.

Mabasa almost found the equaliser for the Buccaneers few minutes before the break, but his header went narrowly wide of goals with Akpeyi beaten.

Riveiro must have said something to his charges at the break because they immediately took the game to Swallows and they were rewarded with a goal in the 53rd minute when Maswanganyi tapped in a cross from Thabiso Lebitso.

Mofokeng wasted a chance to put Pirates in the lead in the 77nd minute when he found himself unmarked inside the box. but shot over the crossbar from few metres out.

Pirates were reduced to 10 men in the dying minutes of the match when Sibisi was given his marching orders for using abusive language towards the referee.

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In other DStv Premiership games played on Wednesday night, Chippa United beat Cape Town Spurs 2-0 and TS Galaxy handed Royal AM a 3-0 drubbing. The matches were played at the Nelson Mandela and Mbombela Stadiums respectively.

SuperSport United let a two goal lead slip and were held to a 2-2 draw by Golden Arrows at Mpumalanga Stadium.