Mthatha City got their sweet revenge when they beat EC Bees 3-2 in their ABC Motsepe League encounter at Mthatha Stadium on Friday.
The two sides were meeting for the first time, after the Bhisho-based outfit beat City 1-0 during the Nedbank Cup preliminary round held in East London recently.
City’s director of football, Nkush Malgas, said the first half was where all the damage was done, and that was right after they scored their first goal in two minutes after the first whistle, with both sides going for the kill.
“By the 31st minute we were 2-0 up. They equalised on the 36th minute. You could see by the number of free kicks in the first half that it was a close encounter. Each side had seven free kicks.”
Malgas said the plan was not to stay far from the leading pack, and following this tough match-up, which required a lot of planning, they believe they will be able to achieve that.
“The four points margin is reachable, but we need to take one game at a time and remain humble.
“We needed to keep the belief that it is doable. As you know, Bees are not an easy side to score against, as they’ve conceded only four goals prior our game.”
The third-teir league coach said their technical team went through all the videos they had on Bees and studied the “Crazy Gangs’” weaknesses.
“After we got their team sheet, we knew which game approach we needed to utilise. We had about four ways on how to approach the game, depending on who was gonna start and who was available to play.
“During the first half the wind was in our favour, so set-pieces were gonna be the key factor to create scoring chances. Fortunately we scored both of our two goals via set pieces from a rehearsed scenario.
“Going into the second half with the wind against us, and we knew that ‘game tactical management’ was gonna be crucial, and our goalkeeper managed the situation well from dead ball situations.”
The City mentor said the credit had to go to their boys for the effort made.
“They were the ones who were crying after losing during the Nedbank Cup against Bees. For us it’s just to remain focused and not to fall for complacency going forward.”
City’s Momelezi Mkhize managed to score two goals with Gugu Jaku scoring their third goal.
“We have a group of players that have tactical flexibility who are able to change positions any time of the game.”
Malgas said they were prepared for PE Stars. “Don’t be fooled by their 2-0 loss to Tornado. They can’t be at position three for nothing. There’s something special with them with their high scoring rate of 17 goals.”
Bizana Pondo Chiefs 2-0 Lion City, Spears FC 4-0 Highburry, Matta Milan 1-1 Future Tigers, Sibanye 1-0 FC Buffalo, Mthatha City 3-2 EC Bees, Swartkops Valley 2-1 City Lads, Tornado 3-0 PE Stars, Try Again 0-3 Butterworth FC