/ 9 January 2011

Last-gasp goal for Pirates breaks deadlock

Orlando Pirates and SuperSport United remained becalmed in a sea of missed chances until Thulasizwe Mbuyane turned the outcome on its head in injury time with a last-gasp winning goal for the Buccaneers in the Absa Premier League game at a rain-soaked Lucas Moripe Stdium in Atteridgeville on Saturday night.

Until then it had seemed the teams could have continued for a week of Sundays without the deadlock being broken.

And such was the shock of the ultimate breakthrough that bemused SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt remained rooted to the ground like a statue after the misery of the defending champions continued unabated.

After their imposing hat-trick of titles in the past three seasons, SuperSport are now wallowing in 13th position on the fringe of the relegation zone — and they might well struggle to finish among the top eight teams at the end of the season.

For Pirates, however, their high hopes remained intact as they edged to within two points of faltering log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns and remained well in the running for the PSL championship in third place.

But, in truth, it is no exaggeration to suggest that both teams might have scored six goals had full use been made of the countless opportunities.

None of the finishing blunders was more mind-boggling than the bumbling of SuperSport’s Letladi Madubanye in the 65th minute.

Credit, however, must be given to the respective Bafana Bafana goalkeepers, Rowen Fernandez, who was making his debut for SuperSport, and the Buccaneers’ extrovert jack-in-the-box, Moeneeb Joseph.

Both brought off superlative saves to keep the respective scorelines blank for most of the game — and Fernandez, in particular, demonstrated his class in the first half with breathtaking saves from Mbuyane and Daine Klate.

Josephs showed his mettle when partly saving a cunning 30m ground shot from Liberian international Anthony Laffor before crawling on all fours to avert danger with the ball only centimetres away from the goal line. – Sapa