Thunderbirds fly off with title again

Thunderbirds have defended their Sasol League championship after they were crowned the provincial champions of the women’s elite league.

This after they beat City Lads in the final for the second season running, this time 2-0, at the WSU’s Ibika campus in Butterworth. Both goals were scored by U20 national team striker Zimasa Dekeda.

Thunderbirds scored 137 goals during the 2018-19 season and conceded only 13 times, and their coach, Thembalethu Apleni, said retaining their title came at a price.

“It was a very tough season with many challenges that we had to overcome,” said Apleni.

“The first challenge was the fields we had to go to and then the travelling costs were breathing down my neck.

“Because I spent more than R230,000 this season, because for a single away game we had to spend +-R15,000.

“Even when we were playing at home, you spend money, because you have to collect the players from their residences.

“So it was not easy at all this time around because there were changes to the league as well,” said Apleni.

He was also referring to the fact that the provincial SA Footfrom ball Association decided to abandon two streams in the Sasol League – inland and coastal stream – to have a single stream, forcing teams from as far as Mthatha to travel to places like Port Elizabeth to honour their league commitments.

“Playing against City Lads has never been easy for us, but fortunately for us this season we managed to beat them twice. We visited them in PE in the first round and we won that game, and this time we were hosting them. “And we were just unfortunate to have fallen short in Ntabankulu when we drew against Executive Ladies.

“But I must applaud City Lads for giving us such a challenging game because their players played their hearts out.”

Apleni said they were now gearing up for the Sasol League national championships which are expected to be held in Kimberley from December 3 to 7.

At last year’s championships Thunderbirds were knocked out in the semifinals by Bloemfontein Celtics at Kabokweni Stadium in Mpumalanga.

“We are expecting things to be much tougher than what we encountered at last year’s tournament. Last year was a learning curve for us, so this year we need to be on top of things. But after seeing the girls this season we are ready for the championships.”