EC Bees victory a Motsepe League hat-trick

FOR the third consecutive year, EC Bees have managed to beat all the teams in the ABC Motsepe League and are now one step closer to getting into the last 32 teams that will be vying for the Nedbank Cup, after they beat Matta Milan on a penalty shootout at the Jan Smuts Stadium in East London over the weekend.

The “Crazy Gang” had a tough time trying to tame Milan, who came out all guns blazing in the first half.

Milan opened the scoring in the 30th minute through Thamsanqa Tibe, but last season’s dream team kept their cool until they found a chance to strike back with Sonwabo Moqokolo equalising 15 minutes into the second half.

Both sides couldn’t find the winner and the game went on to penalty shoot-outs. Bees scored four of their penalties, while Milan only scored two.

Bees coach Chippa Njedu said his side was not as strong as it was last season, but was more confident about his charges after the game.

“This result will motivate the boys and they will now be more confident and they will know they can compete in league games,” Njedu said.

“So this win will help us a lot as a team and now we are going to prepare to play an SAB League team to get into the Nedbank.

“We are very happy as the management because it shows you that there’s something we’re doing right and I feel very proud right now. ”

Njedu said playing their first game against Mthatha City, which was scheduled to kick-off at 10am, was the cause of the fatigue in the first half during

“Milan played on scheduled time, but we had to wait and started playing at past 11am and because of that we didn’t have enough time to rest.

“But I won’t accept that as an excuse for the way we played in the first half.

“We tried to play our game but it was a challenge because they were already leading 1-0 and then we played under pressure.”

The “Crazy Gang” mentor said they put their youngsters to the test and they passed with flying colours.

“We thought we’d be still looking for new young players to reinforce the squad, but today our boys showed us something special about them and we now know we made the correct choices,” he said.

Bees will now face a team from the the final match against Milan. SAB League and will likely ease their way through to the last 32 teams who will battle it out with other third-tier league teams and Premier Soccer League teams.

Matta Milan coach Andile Dyani showed sportsmanship when he went to embrace the Bees squad after the game, even though he was not impressed with the way Akhona Makalima officiated their game.

“It was very hard preparing for this game and I really thought that we had what it takes to play here today.

“But we need to fix the problem with our officials because she [Makalima] was biased.

“If you check the penalty we saved, she instructed the opposition to retake it without any reason, but sadly I don’t have a right to confront the referee because the final decision lies with her,” he said.