Underdogs show teeth in weekend of upsets
The East London Central Premier League produced a weekend of upsets as the underdogs flexed their muscle.
With the competition now reaching its business end there is much at stake for all 12 Premier League sides. The comedy of errors that is Riverside’s season took another turn for the worse on Sunday as Kelly Smith’s side limped to a surprise 3-1 defeat at the hands of a rejuvenated Parkside United.
It took less than 10 minutes for United to find the opening goal of the match. Veteran striker Leroy Stuurman found himself at the right place at the right time running into a defencesplitting pass before slipping the ball past the keeper. Keanu Perrins doubled his side’s lead when he capitalised on a perfectly timed through-ball.
Riverside pulled one back in the second half, but Daylin Prins struck United’s third to ensure that his side walked away with all three points. The defeat drops Riverside down to seventh in the table while Parkside United now find themselves in sixth place thus strengthening their Premier Top 8 ambitions.
On current form, fourthplaced DiRoma’s fans would’ve felt some sense of confidence when they hosted Napoli on Sunday. Lybo Poyo’s Newlandbased outfit had other plans, however, and dealt the Blues what looks to be a fatal blow in their quest for Premier League honours.
Napoli’s talismanic striker Olwethu Bless marked his selection to the East London Central LFA senior representative squad with two sublime goals and Momelezi Tanana added the other to condemn DiRoma to a shock 3-2 defeat.
There was no such problems for the other title contenders Seagulls who romped to a comfortable 3-0 victory against a struggling Conquerors as veteran striker Odwa Yekiso bagged a brace.
Swaraj continued with their rich vein of form and added more misery to Atlantic Spurs relegation woes after recording a 4-2 win courtesy of a superb hat-trick from Jaid Kroutz with Raeez Frazer adding the other.
Brothers of Peace showed superb resilience in holding Pride of India to a 1-1 draw while log leaders Star of India kept on course to win their first Premier League title in nine years after earning a hard-fought 2-1 win against Millan.
Despite missing a number of key players, Star of India still had plenty of star power with Graham Morrow opening the scoring for the log leaders when he slid home a low square from the right in the 26th minute. The champions-elect created many goalscoring opportunities but fluffed them, missing the striking power of Allistar Visagie and Temba Moloi.
They, however, got the vital breakthrough midway into the second half when captain courageous Ivandre Campbell ran onto a defence-splitting pass and made no mistake from close-in. Millan’s late offensive push reduced arrears in the 66th minute, but it was too little too late.
Newly crowned EL Central John Korkie-sponsored First Division league champions Imonti Christian Centre kept their foot firmly on the winning pedal after crushing Real Dukashe 6-1 in midweek.
Second-placed Leeds United kept alive their hopes of Premier League promotion with a comfortable 4-1 win against Diaroma United while their only other threat, K-Way, netted five without reply against Ngamla.
In other First Division results, FC East London beat Saints 3-1 and Central United and Alphen Warriors played out to a 2-2 draw.
Scenery Park-based Millan FC were crown the 2018 EL Central LFA Deolin Willemse-sponsored U21 League champions on Saturday at the North End Stadium after grinding out a hard-fought 1-0 win against title rivals Riverside.
It was a fitting end to Mandise Baliwe’s young and talented Millan side who were by far the most consistent performers in the league this season.