Stellies wallop Supersport to show Cup pedigree
STELLENBOSCH FC again showed they have the cup pedigree to match their burgeoning talent after they emphatically defeated Supersport United in their Nedbank Cup quarter-final clash at the Danie Craven Stadium yesterday.
After leading 1-0 at the break, the match ended as a contest as soon as Stellenbosch knocked the stuffing out of Supersport with three second-half goals in the space of 15 minutes.
The reigning Carling Cup champions became the second side to advance to the Nedbank semi-finals after Mamelodi Sundowns won on Friday night.
Stellenbosch coach Steve Barker was elated that every player played their part in the match.
“It was a good team effort with every player contributing,” said Barker.
“The players had lots of confidence and belief. It’s off to another semi-final we go. We managed another clean sheet while at the same we scored goals against a very good Supersport team.”
Supersport coach Gavin Hunt said his side didn’t adapt to the spoiling conditions.
“We just didn’t adapt to the conditions as well as Stellenbosch did. The killer punch was their second goal,” said Hunt.
With both teams showing enterprise in an effort to take early control, a succession of attacking sorties from Stellenbosch down their left flank prised open the Supersport defence in the seventh minute.
Supersport goalkeeper Ricardo Goss stopped an attack, but when he failed to hold on to the ball, Stellenbosch had two shots at goal before Ivory Coast international Anicet Oura, showing great composure, netted from an acute angle.
While Supersport were still recovering from this setback, Stellenbosch exerted more pressure and their New Zealand attacking midfielder Andre de Jong was presented with a header opportunity, but Goss easily held on to his effort.
Around the half-hour mark, scoring
chances fell to Oura and Devin Titus, but neither managed to capitalise at a time when Stellenbosch’s pace around the park was proving hard to contain for the visitors.
Supersport, with the wind at their backs, enjoyed sporadic runs deep into Stellenbosch territory, but often there was a lack of support for the player in possession.
Supersport started the second half with three substitutions, Shandre Campbell, Siviwe Magidigidi and Lucky Muthewi entering the fray.
But they were knocked stone cold in the opening six minutes of the stanza when Stellenbosch scored twice.
First up was Titus a minute after the restart. And the home fans had hardly stopped celebrating their side’s second goal when Player of the Match De Jong added goal number three, and it was the beginning of the end for the Tshwane visitors.
It was De Jong’s third Nedbank Cup goal of this campaign.
While his fellow front-runners were all in on the scoring act, Iqraam Rayners was dead keen to get his name on the score-sheet and he finally made it 4-0 with a well-taken goal after fine inter-play with De Jong.
When it was clear what the eventual outcome would be, both coaches decided to make substitutions with the view to keeping some key players fresh for upcoming Premiership encounters.