ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Pretoria | Monday 11.30am.
BRUCE Grobbelaar made a dream debut as SuperSport United coach when the Castle Premiership strugglers scored a dramatic 3-2 victory over Orlando Pirates at Caledonian Stadium in Pretoria on Sunday.
United trailed and led in the second half before Michael Thurling struck a last-minute winner that dashed Pirates’ hopes of closing the six-point gap on leaders Sundowns.
Former Liverpool goalkeeper Grobbelaar arrived in South Africa last Wednesday and opted for a 4-4-2 system instead of 3-5-2. It worked and the result offered hope that relegation can be avoided.
Unfortunately for United, fellow-battlers AmaZulu and Bush Bucks also
won in a weekend of shocks that saw Wits University thrash Sundowns 3-0 at a packed Investec Stadium on Saturday night.
An Ernest Marumo goal gave AmaZulu a 1-0 win over Bloemfontein Celtic
and Bucks came from behind to beat Manning Rangers 2-1 through two goals within five minutes from Clement Mazibuko and Patrick Mayo.
Sundowns lost for only the second time this season in the national
league as a Wits side inspired by the brilliance of young goalkeeper Rowan Fernandez struck twice early in the second half to clinch victory.
At the wrong end of the standings, another large nail was hammered into the Mother City coffin when they lost 3-0 to Free State Stars with all the goals coming during the first half.
New coach Johnny Ferreira later spoke of buying reinforcements, but one fears it may already be too late for a club formed just six months ago from the remnants of Seven Stars and Cape Town Spurs.
Also on Monday Classic beat Santos 1-nil in a dour Premiership struggle at the Makhulong Stadium in Tembisa. Thato Maleka scored in the 87th minute.