Shock as Arrows coach resigns

MANQOBA Mngqithi bizarrely quit as Lamontville Golden Arrows coach just hours after a surprise cup win at highly fancied Bidvest Wits, claiming it was for the good of the club.

The announcement came just 12 hours after Arrows had twice come from behind to pull off an upset 3-2 win away against Wits in the first round of the Telkom Knockout event.

A club statement quoted the 42-year-old Mngqithi as saying: “When results are not forthcoming it becomes a situation which one needs to be realistic about, and make decisions for, the good of the entire club.

“Sometimes a change can have a positive effect and change the fortunes of a club. This is a club with great potential and I believe it is only a question of time before things improve.”

The win over Wits was only the second of the season for Arrows. Their other success came against new boys Polokwane City on September 15.

They have lost four of their six league games and, with just four points, sit precariously perched just above the relegation zone.

But on Friday night, Mngqithi suggested they were finally beginning to find form in front of the goal, which he saw as the reason for their early season problems – only to drop a bombshell the next day.

It is the third successive season that Mngqithi has become an early season casualty. Last year, he was the first coach fired in the new campaign when he left the Cape Town new boys Chippa United after just two matches in charge.

The previous season he was given the chop by AmaZulu.

Mngqithi is the second managerial casualty of this season, following in the footsteps of Duncan Lechesa of Polokwane City.

He is also not the first Arrows coach to depart the day after an impressive away triumph. Ernst Middendorp was famously fired after he had won away in Polokwane over Chiefs with Arrows in September 2011.