Venda derby leads Championship action as second round begins

The second round of matches in the Motsepe Foundation Championship gets underway with a tricky Venda derby kicking off the action on Friday.

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Limpopo has more teams than any other province in the division and Venda houses three of those. 

Two of them lock horns at Thohoyandou Stadium. Venda Football Academy will host their neighbours Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila at 3.30pm. 

Neither of the team would want to lose this game because that could see them pushed further into the relegation quagmire. 

Venda FA will be boosted by the return of Johnny Ferreira who quit Black leopards for them last week. 

They will be hoping that his return brings back with it some positive results as they look to move off the bottom end of the league standings. 

Venda FA are in 13th position with 15 points after 15 games and a win could see them jump up to 10th. 

Tshakhuma are also in the relegation zone as they sit in 11th with 16 points in the bag so far. 

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Platinum City Rovers, who are 12th in the standings, are also in action on Friday as they host Hungry Lions at Olen Park Stadium.

Lions will be looking for the three points that will get them back in serious contention for the title that comes with automatic promotion to the elite league. 

They are currently on 26 points, four off the leaders Polokwane City but still in with a good chance with 15 more games to go.

Relegation becomes reality with each game now

NB La Masia could be thrown deeper into the relegation zone on Saturday if they lose to their hosts at Giant Stadium in Ga-Rankuwa JDR Stars on Saturday.

JDR are third in the standings with 27 points, just three behind the leaders. La Msia are second from bottom with 14 points, just two above bottom placed Black Leopards. 

The log leaders, Polokwane City will want to keep their lead going into the second round when they host their provincial neighbours Magesi FC, also on Saturday. 

Fixtures

• Friday: Venda FA v Tshakhuma; City Rovers v Hungry Lions

• Saturday: Black Leopards v Pretoria University; Polokwane City v Magesi; JDR Stars v La Masia

• Sunday: Uthongathi v Casric Stars; Pretoria Callies v Baroka

• Monday: Cape Town Spurs v All Stars