Sunday Times – Oct 15 10:14 PM
By Sy Lerman
All that was in tune for Moroka Swallows during their late 2-1 Premier League defeat against a lively Jomo Cosmos at Germiston Stadium on Sunday afternoon was the club’s entertaining brass band.
While the Birds only seemed to play with urgency and purpose while trailing, the young ensemble in the stand kept up an incessant musical rapport throughout the 90 minutes – but to no avail.
In the process, a mesmerising Dikgang “The Terminator” Mabalane pounced on Swallows’ periods of lethargy and loss of concentration to open the score in the 61st minute and then provide the winning goal for Cosmos in the 85th minute within seconds after Mame Niang had equalised for The Birds with a towering header.
Livelier and more purposeful, in the main, Cosmos deserved a success that keeps them on the heels of surprise log leaders Silver Stars. But Swallows will rue the fact that they were still seemingly celebrating their equaliser when “The Terminator” struck again with devastating effect in the 86th minute.
Cosmos had the ball in the net twice during the opening period but, much to the consternation of club officials on the bench, the goals were disallowed for off-side.
Then the Swallows players and officials were equally upset early during the second period when a spate of refereeing decisions went against them with the regularity of bullets fired from an AK-47.
Swallows seemed to play at three-quarter pace until Cosmos took the lead, with the Birds only then stepping up a gear to force their opponents back on their heels as the game developed into a frantic dog-fight.
However, the unrestrained joy among the 4,000 crowd that was dominated by Swallows supporters following Niang’s goal was speedily replaced by Mabelane’s unrestrained jubilation after scoring the winner, performing a series of acrobatic somersaults and then jumping into the arms of grateful and equally delighted coach Jomo Sono.
Sapa
