Chippa hold all the aces
Poor turnout mars game as Chilli Boys beat Highlands Park
CHIPPA United opened their Mdantsane venture with a win as they beat Highlands Park 2-0 in Sisa Dukashe Stadium at the weekend.
But it was the poor crowd attendance that stole the show with the venue far from the expected full house.
Some have attributed the disappointing attendance to ticket prices that were going at a minimum price of R60 instead of the usual charge of R40.
But Chippa boss Siviwe Mpengesi and Buffalo City Metro mayor Xola Pakati disagree.
According to Pakati, because it was the festive season, people have got lots of things to attend to and therefore could not make it to the game.
Mpengesi concurred saying it was only the first match in SA’s second-biggest township and it is therefore too early to judge, adding he was expecting a full house at the next match at the venue against Mamelodi Sundowns in February.
Pakati believes the less than 4 000 crowd attendance was a good one but admitted it could have been bigger.
“We have successfully hosted this event and we are happy with the spin-offs because this was the best way to close 2016,” said the mayor. “We could have done better than this but there are many other things that take place in the township that people are preoccupied with.”
Mpengesi weighed in: “I’m pleased with the crowd understanding this time of the year but of course we will have to improve on our marketing of the game going into the future.
“This was a first of many matches to come here and Highlands Park is a small team.
“I am pleased the results went our way because this now means Buffalo City is our lucky charm because we have never lost a league game when playing here.”
Not only was Mpengesi the only one thrilled with the hard-fought victory, but so was Chilli Boys mentor, Dan “Dance” Malesela.
The coach was particularly pleased by his charges keeping a clean sheet, something they had not done since October 25 when they played to a goalless draw against Bloemfontein Celtic in Port Elizabeth.
“We put ourselves under pressure not to concede any more goals, so I am hoping this is the beginning of good things defensively,” said Malesela.
“It was our home game anyway and we appreciate the three points because the difference between us and the team at the bottom of the standings is two points, therefore we cannot go out there for draws.”
He was hoping Chippa collect another three points in the last match of the year against Ajax Cape Town this weekend in Cape Town.
“Life is getting difficult for us everyday because we now are sitting with quite a number of injuries, particularly at the back and if we cannot find a miracle in the next few days we might find ourselves in a testing situation, but I think we will overcome it.”
His counterpart Gordon Igesund of the relegation-threatened Highlands Park believes they should have won the match had they minimised on mistakes.
“We could have got something out of this game because we deserve, we were just unfortunate,” Igesund said.
Lerato Manzini and Katlego Mashego scored for Chippa. —