Two second half goals by Township Rollers’ Edwin Moalosi and Lawrence Majawa brought to an end the dominance of Extension Gunners in an exciting beMOBILE Premiership clash played at the Lobatse Sports Complex on Saturdat afternoon.
The scintillating match finished 2-0 after substitute Moalosi headed home in the 66th minute to subdue a Gunners side that had been the more dominant in the match. On the 75th minute, Majawa completed the scoring when he too headed home from a Segolame Boy corner kick. Before then, Gunners had wasted a lot of their scoring opportunities although Rollers could also be thankful to their goalkeeper Kabelo Dambe without whose reflex saves they could have seen Gunners go two goals up in the first half.
For the entire first half, Gunners mastered some tactical superiority over their star-studded opponents, practically eliminating any threat from usual suspects Kobamelo Kebaikanye, Maano Ditshupo and Boy. Boy is known to be a perennial threat on any day, but coach Daniel Nare’s tactics on Saturday had ensured he saw little action as he remained anonymous on the field for the entire first half. On the whole, it was an entertaining match where the two sides’ defenders shone against their respective opponents.
Striker Kekaetswe Mara Moloi on the Gunners side was conspicuously missing in action as there was little supply for him from the midfielders. Most of the time the former Mochudi Centre Chiefs’ goal scorer had to go deep to get himself some service where he often found uncompromising Rollers defenders who felled him on numerous occasions. His teammates similarly failed to deliver when they were in good scoring positions – on four occasions they skied their shots to keep Popa in the game.
In the second half, Popa returned with more purpose although the Gunners’ defence was able to deal with their threatening moves. The introductions of Edwin Moalosi and Terrence Mandaza by coach Mark Harrison, coupled with with Gunners’ substitution of Topo Piet was the turning point in the match. Without Piet who had somewhat kept Popa’s defence on their toes, Rollers started finding easy path into Gunners’ upper third, until Moalosi struck.
Gunners tried to fight back but were undone when Majawa netted a second. The Lobatse side tried in vain to keep pressing for a consolation goal with their supporters still on their feet cheering them on but there was no letting off by the Popa rearguard. In other matches of the day, Gaborone United went down 2-1 to BDF XI while Mochudi Centre Chiefs were held 1-1 by Police XI.
ROLLERS WIN AGAIN: Rollers beat Gunners 1-0 in the first round and won 2-0 this Saturday
