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Ajax return to form and pile more misery on Arrows

NO PASSAGE: Ajax's Franklyn Caleis sandwiched by two Arrows players. Pic. 17/01/2207. © UNKNOWN
NO PASSAGE: Ajax's Franklyn Caleis sandwiched by two Arrows players. Pic. 17/01/2207. © UNKNOWN

Canaan Mdletshe

Canaan Mdletshe

Ajax Cape Town proved beyond doubt yesterday that their loss last Wednesday to the struggling AmaZulu was a fluke.

The Urban Warriors returned to KwaZulu-Natal and beat Lamontville Golden Arrows 2-0 in a Castle Premiership game at Chatsworth Stadium in Durban.

The win pushed the Capetonians to eighth spot on the log.

Arrows' shooting was way off target. Abafana Bes'thende also lacked cohesion and purpose, and paid dearly for that.

The visitors were the better side but missed inviting chances in the early stages of the first half. But they made up for it in the 27th minute when Thembinkosi Fanteni headed home a Brent Carelse cross from a free kick at the edge of the box.

Twelve minutes later, Granwald Scott extended the lead.

He nodded home a beauty from the overlapping Carelse's neat pass, making it 2-0.

At this stage the home side failed to put a decent number of passes together and they hardly made an attempt on goal.

The only livewire was their goalkeeper, Davies Phiri, who came in for Nkosana Maseko in the ninth minute after the latter collapsed.

Phiri did extremely well, thwarting dangerous shots from the Ajax forwards, denying Nazeer Allie and Scott scoring opportunities in the 15th and 18th minutes.

With Ajax relaxing after their dominance in the first half, the home side came back into the game and started to attack relentlessly, at one stage forcing Ajax goalkeeper Hans Vonk to dive full length to save.

But their moves were easily thwarted by the Ajax defence as the game wore on.

Arrows' coach Manqoba Mnqithi said after the game that they were too defensive at home.

"We were not competent enough and they caught us on set pieces. We were too defensive and we absorbed a lot of pressure," he said.

Ajax coach Muhsin Ertugral said he was not satisfied with his side's performance.

"We should have wrapped up this game earlier, but we wasted a number of chances," he said.

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