Hellenic registered their second victory of the season when they beat log leaders Santos 1-0 at the Athlone Stadium on Tuesday night.
Hellenic clinched the win in the 86th minute with a strike from substitute Masixole May.
Although their more illustrious opponents created more scoring opportunities, Hellenic’s never-say-die attitude secured them the unlikely victory.
It could have been all different had Santos not missed the easiest of scoring chances. The most glaring of these was in the 11th minute when Santos’ Musa Ongao headed on for Jean Marc-Ithier who miss-kicked just 3m from the goal line and again in the 23rd when a Hellenic defender miscued, but Thembile Kanono shot wide of the upright from close range.
Another chance went a begging a minute later for the log leaders when Santos’ Tyren Arendse beat Hellenic’s goalkeeper Energy Murambandoro coming off his line, but again the strike was well wide.
Hellenic’s only other real chance of scoring came in the 62nd minute but Thulaganyo Gadshubelwe made a mess of it with only Santos goalie Brenden Wardle to beat.
So far this season Santos have lost three times to lower teams and have now got their work cut out if they are to win the league. — Sapa