Jomo Cosmos denied Santos maximum points as they held them to a 1-1 draw at the Athlone Stadium on Friday night.
Cosmos looked bright early on, in particular down their right wing, where Bongi Macala and Siza Dlamini had a couple of chances.
In the 17th minute, another move down the right saw Bamuza Sono release Macala with a long ball.
Clean through on goal, but from an acute angle, Macala did well to beat Santos goalkeeper Wayne Roberts with a thunderous shot into the roof of the net.
Santos should have equalised two minutes later, but after having been fortunate to be awarded a penalty after Thapelo Tshilo tangled with Erwin Isaacs inside the box, Isaacs had his spot kick saved by Avril Phali.
To make matters worse, the striker blasted the rebound inches over the cross bar.
However, it didn’t take much longer for the equaliser to arrive as Isaacs clinically buried a 20-yard free kick into the back of the net in the 33rd minute.
There were few chances in the second half as both defences held firm and long-range shots were the order of the day.
There were, however, some early opportunities for the People’s Team. First, Zvenyika Makonese had his shot blocked and then a blistering strike by Thom-Rick October was palmed away by Phali.
While both teams worked hard to try to create opportunities for a winner, there were no further clear-cut chances.
In the end, both coaches would probably have been satisfied with the result, which was a fair reflection of a hard-fought game. — Sapa