There was a hairy moment at the end, but Orlando Pirates emerged victorious over Royal AM in Tuesday evening’s DStv Premiership clash at Orlando Stadium.
That season-opening defeat at Stellenbosch was but an aberration. This is how it should be. This is how the team pencilled in as championship contenders is expected to perform.
The Buccaneers justified their billing as the team capable of ending Mamelodi Sundowns’ domination of the DStv Premiership with this compelling demolition of Royal AM. It should have been a massacre actually, such was Pirates’ ability to carve the visitors open at the back. But typical of local Premiership teams, they fluffed chances that could have seen them register a rugby-style score-line.
They went into the break 3-1 up, but a 5-0 lead would have been a truer reflection of their dominant display that saw them knocking the ball about purposefully and looking like scoring whenever they got into the Royal AM half.
But Thabiso Monhyane inexplicably shot wide and over on 20 minutes and had an attempt on 39 minutes blocked by Mondli Mpoto who had earlier on denied Monnpule Saleng on 23 minutes.
The Royal AM goalkeeper had, however, failed to deny Zakhele Lepasa the opening goal on the quarter-hour mark from the penalty spot after Samuel Manganyi had rugby tackled Maswanganyi.
Saleng made it 2-0 just before the half-hour mark with a brilliant left-footed curled ball from inside the box having received a fantastic pass from Phillip Ndlondlo. Lepasa then added his second and Pirates’ third ten minutes before the break when he received a route one, long ball from goalkeeper Chaine which he allowed to bounce one and then toe-poked home past Mpoto.
At 3-0 so early in the game, Pirates looked set for a big victory. But Royal AM coach John Maduka made four changes at once and the impact was almost immediate with one of them Sphiwe Cele reducing the deficit with a sweetly stuck shot from inside the box into the far corner of Chaine‘s goals.
The goal gave the visitors some confidence and they returned from the break much more energised and made it a contest of it from a Pirates side that appeared to have had the wind taken out of their sail a little bit.
And late in the match, Chaine made a mistake that saw the visitors’ substitute Macupu score a second for the KwaZulu-Natal outfit to threaten to make the scoreline a bit more respectable. But then deep into injury time, the Buccaneers’ own substitute Bandile Shandu slotted home Pirates’ fourth to send The Ghost into song and no doubt send a message to the rest of the league that Jose Riveiro’s men are serious title contenders.
IOL Sport