Downs prevail in the Tshwane Derby
5 6 MOMENTS of folly from birthday boy Ronwen Williams and teammate Dean Furman gifted Mamelodi Sundowns a 2-0 victory in their derby match against SuperSport United last night at Lucas Moripe Stadium and took them back to the top of the Premier Soccer League standings.
It also extended their unbeaten run to 15 games in all competitions leaving them with 33 points, one more than Bidvest Wits, and three ahead of third-placed Mpumalanga Black Aces, who play today and have a game in hand.
Williams, who turned 24 on Thursday, took his eye off a spinning shot that was rolling harmlessly towards him and inadvertently knocked it over for a corner in an attempt to control the it with his foot.
From the resultant corner Hlompho Kekana rose unmarked to head home at the near post to break the deadlock after 43 minutes of unspectacular football.
SuperSport were putting in most of the midfield effort, pressing high and frustrating Sundowns before contriving to undo all their hard work.
Their marking during Keegan Dolly s corner kick was as poor as Williams mistake, reflecting the peril of the makeshift defence that coach Gordon Igesund was forced to put out after a spate of injuries. The line-up included veteran Thabo September who played his first game this season.
The second error came straight after the break when Furman tried to dribble instead of passing the ball in midfield, and was dispossessed by Dolly, allowing Khama Billiat to run away on the counter before unselfishly setting up Leonard Castro for the second goal.
SuperSport had been enjoying some morale advantage up to the concession of the first goal, putting Sundowns off their stride, closing down their channels and forcing the home side to play long balls forward in search of opportunity.
But after going 2-0 ahead Sundowns began to show their class and could have won by a lot more as they ran at their visitors with high tempo.
Williams in a bid to atone for his error made three fine stops, one of them a brilliant point blank block from Billiat at the back post.
He also denied a rasping shot from Dolly and another effort from the industrious Castro. Ironically the goalkeeper saved SuperSport from a heavier defeat.
The gates were open after we scored the second and we showed great maturity in our play,” said victorious coach Pitso Mosimane afterwards.
It s frustrating but it is part of football, the errors cost us,” was Igesund s philosophical response.
Both the players and decent sized crowd had to contend with some heavy smoke at times, which blew across the stadium from a demonstration in the road near the stadium where residents were burning objects in the middle of the road in a protest against local councillors.
Meanwhile, at Olen Park in Potchefstroom, Jomo Cosmos beat Orlando Pirates 1- 0.