Weslians, others must hit 30 points

MBABANE – Surviving relegation will be an interesting battle this season – especially with less games to play than last season. All the bottom four teams that got relegated last season failed to hit the 30-point mark, that saw struggling Tambuti survive by a whisker. This essentially means that this season, now on match-day 17 in the second round, may see the relegated bottom two failing to even reach 25 points, especially those in the bottom four already.

Those being Tambuti (14 points), Manzini Wanderers (14 points), Tambankulu Callies (13 points) and basement side in rookies Seven Dreams, who have seven points with only nine games remaining for them before the league curtain closes. None of these teams won this week,

Wanderers lost 0-1 to Green Mamba, Callies by the same margin to Moneni Pirates, Tambuti lost 1-3 to Royal Leopard, while Seven Dreams lost 0-4 to Mbabane Swallows.

Last season, four teams were relegated, but the rules were changed for this season. Those who got axed to the second-tier league, the MTN National First Division are Milling Hot Spurs (29 points), Rangers (27 points), Tinyosi, now Ezulwini United (23 points) and Malanti Chiefs (21 points), while Tambuti amassed 30 points and survived. Worth mentioning is that these teams played more games than this season as there were 16 teams then, there are only 14 this time around. This meant the relegated teams failed to reach to the 30-point mark despite playing four matches more than the those facing the axe this season will play.

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