Wheels come off for Bidvest Wits
BIDVEST Wits’ season is turning into a nightmare, with the Absa Premiership champions capitulating to a dramatic 3-0 defeat against AmaZulu at King Zwelithini Stadium last night.
An at-times ill-tempered match saw AmaZulu midfielder Michael Morton red-carded in the 71st minute. By that stage, though, Wits’ evening had seen a stunning strike by Morton in the 11th minute, a poorlyawarded penalty scored by Rhulani Manzini in the 60th, and a second strike by Manzini in the 62nd. Wits slipped to a seventh league and cup match without a win in 2017-18.
AmaZulu bounced back from a 4-1 defeat against Lamontville Golden Arrows in Sunday’s Durban derby at Princess Magogo Stadium.
Morton’s early strike put Wits under pressure. Probing Wits’ area, Usuthu met a solid defence. A half-clearance fell to Morton six metres outside the penalty box, who controlled and struck a beautiful drive into the top-right corner past a diving Moeneeb Josephs.
AmaZulu increased their lead after Jabulani Ncubeni kicked the ball from two metres away from the defender into the arm of Phumlani Ntshangase in Wits’ area and the referee pointed to the spot.
Manzini struck his penalty straight and hard as Josephs dived to his right. The spot-kick had seemed incorrectly awarded – Ntshangase had no time to remove his arm.
If that manner of providing a soft second seemed unfair to Wits, then the evening fell apart further for the killer goal two minutes later that must have been at least in some part the result of their despondency.
Almost from the restart winger Mhlengi Cele showed skill on the left of the field then put through a stunning pass that split Wits open again, putting Manzini through to slam in a fine low finish past Josephs.
Emotions spilled over as Tapelo Nyongo fouled Gabadinho Mhango. Morton got involved, was spat at by Mhango, lost his composure and angrily pushed the Wits’ Malawian forward, who fell to the floor. Morton was red-carded; there was no censure for Mhango.
● Platinum Stars went down 0-1 to Lamontville Golden Arrows and Baroka triumphed 2-0 over Bloemfontein Celtic. — DDC