Johannesburg — Maritzburg United kept their chances of surviving relegation alive after beating Casric Stars 2-0 in the PSL promotion/relegation play-off on Saturday afternoon.
Maritzburg made the long trip from Pietermaritzburg to KwaMhlanga knowing that they needed all three points if they were to close the game between them and log leaders Cape Town Spurs.
And indeed, they achieved that feat through strikes from Rowan Human and Mogamad De Goede which gave them the win, leaving them trailling Spurs by three points ahead of the two team’s showdown.
Maritzburg and Spurs will meet on Wednesday night, with the latter holding the points advantage (three) as they’ll need only a draw to earn promotion to the elite league.
Maritzburg, though, might be three points behind Spurs and needing to win on Wednesday, but they'll be more confident heading to the final after this win and playing at home.
And having coached and played for the club, Fadlu Davids will be confident they can retain their Premiership status — a feat that he’ll also dedicate to Clive Barker, his former coach who passed on today.
“The Dog”, as Barker, was popularly known in the local football circles is the first and only Bafana Bafana coach to win the coveted Afcon. Hence many a football loving personnel are mourning his death.
The Team of Choice are no strangers to retaining their status via play-offs, having achieved that feat in 2019 after winning all their four matches under coach Eric Tinkler.
And while Casric have been eliminated from the play-offs after losing all their four matches, they’ll take positives from these matches heading back to the National First Division next season.
Maritzburg who took the play-offs down to the wire were the most dominant side from start to finish in this match as they tested the waters first.
Karim Kimvuidi unleashed a hard and high shot earlier on from close-range as he forced Casric’s returning goalkeeper Ludwe Mpakumpaku into a save.
Mpakumpaku’s counterpart Renaldo Leaner also had to come to his team’s rescue soon thereafter as well as he saved Lehlogonolo Mojela’s goal bound effort from close-range.
But such was the experience of Maritzburg, they turned that defensive move into an attacking one as Human did well to beat his marker with skill before picking up his spot and slotting past Mpakumpaku.
For the duration of the half, the Team of Choice looked like they'd double the tally before the break, but it wasn’t to be as their decision-making in the final third let them down.
Behind with a goal for the second half, Casric’s coach Bucs Mthombeni made two substitutions at half time, including introducing club captain Mumuni Abubakar.
The journeyman brought some stability into his team’s engine room as they could string passes well, but it was De Goed that ensured that Maritzburg put day and night between them and Casric.
De Goed beat Mpakumpaku with a thunderbolt from close-range, giving his team a huge chance of surviving relegation as they’ll have to beat Spurs to retain their ‘R60 Million Status’.
IOL Sport