Sundowns and Wits near high noon
● It was a case of who was favoured by fortune in midweek games between Mamelodi Sundowns’ attacking midfielder Lebohang Maboe and Bidvest Wits’ gingered-hair forward Simon Murray.
For the Scottish-born Murray (26), who joined Wits from the Scottish Premiership team Hibernian FC in July, it was his lucky day at the office on Tuesday.
In less than six minutes of Wits’s game against newly crowned MTN 8 champions Cape Town City, Murray earned a dubious penalty to net the first goal of his two.
TV replays showed there was no contact at all made by the Dutchman on Murray
The unlucky guy in that instance was City’s goalkeeper Peter Leeuwenburgh, who was judged to have brought down Murray.
Television replays clearly showed that there was no contact by the Dutchman on Murray, who went on to score his second on the stroke of halftime.
There was no question about Murray’s second as the Scotsman magnificently weaved his way through a number of City defenders before slotting the ball past a hapless Leeuwenburgh to give his team a priceless 2-0 victory away from home.
Wits coach Gavin Hunt was over the moon having seen his new signing restoring the Clever Boys to the top of the Absa PreIn miership table and taking his goal tally to three, one ahead of teammates and fellow strikers Mxolisi Macuphu and Gift Motupa.
“I was blamed a lot when I didn’t start with Murray. Today he’s justified why he should and it’s good for competition among the forwards I have,” said Hunt.
A day later in the Free State there was no such joy for Maboe as he was denied a chance to add to his two-goal league tally.
Unlike Murray, Maboe and his team thought they were robbed of full points against Bloemfontein Celtic when the assistant referee ruled the attacking midfielder’s goal offside in the 81st minute.
“We won the match but the referee ruled Maboe’s goal offside. (Themba) Zwane was not interfering with play,” a bitter Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane protested.
Fast forward to this afternoon at the Lucas Moripe Stadium where Maboe will be looking to help his team cut Wits’ lead (on them) to three points while Murray will be hoping his lucky stars would have followed him from Cape Town to Attridgeville.
The fixture and its result is likely to set the tone on what should be expected of the two teams who’ve won the league in the past three seasons — Sundowns twice (2015/2016 and 2017/2018) and Wits (2016/2017).
Like Murray, it will be the first time for Maboe — since he joined Sundowns from Maritzburg United in July — to help his team hunt for points against Wits.
Maboe is part of a number of new players at Sundowns hoping to replace Percy Tau and Khama Billiat, who scored a brace in a 20 win away to Wits last season.
Zwane and former Wits player Sibusiso Vilakazi scored when Sundowns completed a double over Wits as Sundowns captured their eighth league crown last season.
When they take the field today Mosimane will want to arrest Wits’s ascendency
this campaign Sundowns started slow, their form marked by four draws and two wins in six matches.
When they take the field this afternoon Mosimane will be looking to arrest Wits’s ascendency, knowing a successive away win may well spark a belief in his equally astute counterpart, Hunt, that this season may well be theirs.
Maboe, Vilakazi and another former Wits striker, Phakamani Mahlambi, are among the players Mosimane hopes will help lift his team to be among the early pacesetters.
For Murray and Hunt even a point against Sundowns will be vital as it will ensure they remain well within the top four going into a week-and-a-half Fifa break.