Pirates strike early to down City

A flying start by Orlando Pirates was enough for them to see off Cape Town City 2-0 in the DStv Premiership at the Orlando Stadium yesterday.

It was a fine way to bounce back for the Buccaneers, who had lost their previous league game 2-0 to Golden Arrows last week, though they did also beat Uthongathi FC on Saturday to reach the last-16 of the Nedbank Cup

With the league race still wide open, the Soweto club managed to close the gap between them and log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns to only five points, though the Tshwane giants do have two games in hand on Pirates.

Any nerves in the Pirates camp were settled bascially from kick -off as Deon Hotto put the home side into the lead a minute into the game.

And the home side extended their lead four minutes later when Thembinkosi Lorch set-up Vincent Pule to tap in from close range, his third league goal of the season.

In the 25th minute, a mistake by captain Happy Jele almost saw the defender gifting the visitors a goal after playing a weak back pass to Richard Ofori, but Ofori was quick to clear the danger.

Pirates’ Thabang Monare had to leave the game early after a head collision with teammate Siphesihle Ndlovu on the half hour mark and he was replaced by Linda Mtambo.

There wasn’t any difference in the second half with Pirates continuing with their dominance, while City were struggling to find any rhythm.

A good run by Craig Martin saw him pass the ball through to Shane Roberts, but the move petered out.

Pirates made another blunder, this time by Ofori, after giving away the ball bu City couldn’t take advantage, with captain Thabo Nodada blasting the ball over the bar in the 77th minute.

Pirates didn’t add to the scoreline, but they would have beeen happy enough with the maximum points.

SuperSport United failed to narrow the gap at the top on log-leaders Mamelodi Sundowns when they lost 2-1 to Bloemfontein Celtic in the Free State capital.