A goal in each half goal gave Polokwane City a hard fought 2-0 victory over Kaizer Chiefs at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday afternoon. City are now number three on the Betway Premiership standings.
For Chiefs, they seem to be struggling to adapt to new coach Nasreddine Nabi’s methods and in their last three matches, they won (2-1 against Richards Bay), drew 2-2 with Royal AM and lost against Rise and Shine on Sunday. Inconsistency seems to be their downfall.
Out of the eight matches they have played in the Betway Premiership, Chiefs won a mere three matches, drew two and lost another three.
They are sitting out of the Top 8 bracket on number nine, and they will need to get going, become consistent and start collecting points.
The game was an entertaining affair with the home side not allowing Chiefs to dominate them. Midfielder Thabang Matuludi was a thorn in the flesh for Amakhosi as he ran riot the entire match. His pace was troublesome on the right and on numerous occasions, he caught Bradley Cross out of position.
City opened the scoring in the 17th minute after a delicious cross from Tlou Nkwe located Oswin Appolis who easily slotted the ball into the net, leaving Chiefs goalie Brandon Petersen stranded.
The cross dissected the Chiefs defence and paved the way for Appolis to grab his first goal of the season. For his efforts, Nkwe was rewarded with the Man of the Match accolade after the game.
During halftime, Nabi made three tactical changes when he pulled off Gaston Sirino, Cross and Wandile Duba for Tebogo Potsane, Mfundo Vilakazi and Thatayaone Ditlhokwe respectively.
The changes gave Amakjhosi the edge going forward and they were knocking on the City’s goalposts in search of an equaliser throughout the second half.
As they threw more men forward, they were exposed when City launched a counter-attack late in the game which resulted in the sucker punch goal that killed Chiefs off.
Mokibelo Ramabu sliced the ball into the net after Petersen had parried the ball back into play. The goal sent the Polokwane fans into a frenzy and the Chiefs part of the grandstand into a mourning.
