Mamelodi Sundowns did no damage to their Castle Premier Soccer League (PSL) aspirations with a comfortable 1-0 victory over Dynamos in Pretoria on Wednesday night.
Sundowns, who had dominated proceedings throughout, clinched the all-important victory came an hour into the match when Sandile Ndlovu calmly slithered the ball past Dynamos goalkeeper Arthur Bartman after a typical build-up from the back by the home side.
For the second time in a week, Sundowns played with plenty of intent but this time with a new strike force of Ndlovu and Jose Torrealba, who both tormented the Dynamos defence with their deft passes to midfielders Clement Mazibuko and Godfrey Sapula to shoot from range.
Sundowns’ ploy of gaining an advantage by scoring from range obviously did not work and Mazibuko and Sapula are usually the suppliers, not the finishers.
But Ndlovu, who had been probing at the Dynamos goal, eventually decided to take matters into his own hands by clinching the winner against his former teammates.
In fact, Dynamos were lucky on the day to escape defeat with such a marginal score line, as Sundowns threw bodies behind the ball in the dying moments to ensure that they bagged the vital three points to keep them at the pinnacle of the PSL table.
Pirates beat Classic
Orlando Pirates came from behind to beat Classic 2-1 in a pulsating PSL encounter played at Chatsworth Stadium in Durban on Wednesday night.
The home side led 1-0 at the interval thanks to a strike by Graham King as early as the eighth minute — this after intercepting Lucky Lekgwathi’s back pass before beating Bucs goalkeeper Thabang Stemmer.
Pirates equalised in the 77th minute through Lekgwathi’s header.
In the 83rd minute, Solomon Mathe scored the winner for the Buccaneers. Mathe was introduced in the 30th minute for the injured Perry Mutapa, who was later taken to hospital.
Mutapa collided with Molefi Ntsoelengoe while going for the ball.
This was Classic’s second loss under new management. — Sapa