Dube Birds fading away
THE current National First Division (NFD) league table is stuff of nightmares. I saw it yesterday and felt a lump in my throat.
For a while now I had sort of managed to numb myself to the reality of Moroka Swallows’ demise. I’d kind of taken leave from being a soccer fan, myself and a home boy of mine often joking that we are now enjoying watching Premiership football without the pressure of supporting a particular team.
In the meantime the hope was that one’s beloved team would make a swift return to the elite league. And in recent weeks I’d kind of succeeded in not taking notice of what was happening in the lower league, and that is particularly easy given the very little publicity the NFD gets.
But there’s just no turning a deaf ear to the news of a 5-0 hammering, is there?
Five-nil! Now if anyone doubted that Swallows are a club in trouble this result would have confirmed it.
Coming as it did in the last match of the first half of the season, the outcome served to cement Swallows’ position at the bottom of the table.
More significantly, however, the defeat means that the once Beautiful Birds of Dube will probably be heading to the second division come the end of the season and from there most likely disappear into oblivion a la the likes of Manning Rangers and Vaal Professionals before them.
This is not how it should be though. Surely, a team steeped in beautiful history as Swallows cannot be allowed to disappear just like that?
Yet if we are to be realistic, Swallows’ demise was a long time coming. Even way before last season when they huffed and puffed their way into a play-off position from which they could not survive, the Birds were a club in trouble.
Those involved at the club often speak glowingly of former boss Leon Prins but for me he is the man who led the club to the mess they are in.
His lack of proper understanding of the game meant that he got overly excited when Gordon Igesund saved the club from relegation and immediately took them close to winning the championship.
At that time, a football savvy boss would have seen the need to inject some fresh blood into the side instead of relying on old horses. But he got blinded by the MTN8 success achieved under new coach Zeca Marques and failed to reinvigorate the squad.
The result was a downward spiral from which it appears Swallows might not get out of. Unless of course someone who loves the club and has the money buys it and ... has that huge American lottery been won yet?