BALFOUR – Croesus Ladies dislodges Wits from the top spot in the league after beating them 1-0.
A Croesus defender tries to clear the ball from her 18-yard area during their home game against Wits Ladies. Photo: Zanele Siso/Zanephoto
Croesus Ladies came out victorious with a slender 1–0 scoreline against a gritty Wits Ladies in a top-of-the-table clash of the Gauteng Sasol Women’s League at Northview High School.
Both teams started the game with a clear determination to be the first to register their name on the scoreboard, hence, the game was somewhat a seesaw affair as it swung from goalpost to goalpost.
This was an attempt from the two teams to take the early lead and possibly score a couple of goals in an endeavor to crush the spirit of their opponents.
The first half ended in a goalless stalemate, with Croesus, fondly known to their avid fans as the Greek Queens, missing a number of glorious opportunities to take the lead. Their main culprit was the evergreen left-winger Lerato ‘Pele’ Ruele, who is the livewire of the team with her telling runs at goals.
The second half was much a replica of the first, although Wits came back a much more rejuvenated side and showed more hunger as they bombarded the goalmouth of the Greek Queens with wave after wave of attack.
The Greek Queens survived the wave of onslaughts with their central defensive sweeper, Kathrine Maguire putting on a sterling performance to stop the menacing Wits strikers in their tracks.
Ten or so minutes to full time, Pele redeemed herself when she managed to put one past the no-nonsense Wits goalkeeper. This goal spurred the visitors up a gear in an effort to find the equaliser as the last eight minutes showed the kind of stuff that Wits Ladies are made of.
But the Greek Queens held tight onto their narrow win and their coach Barnes Qina reflected on the narrow victory by saying a win was a win regardless of how many goals were scored or how they were scored.
“I may not be 100 percent happy with the performance of my girls but what remains is that we won the game and collected the three points. That’s all that matters,” she said.
Her Wits counterpart Gunmen Ngalmane said when he realised the tightness of the encounter, he whispered to his technical team that anyone who scored first would clinch it, and the home side did just that.
“We played our hearts out but if it’s not you day, it’s surely not it. The unfortunate thing is that games are not won on performance but on how many goals you put past the opposition keeper more than your opponents,” he concluded.
