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Coach claims official useless

TERRIERS: Kaizer Chief's Mabhuti Khenyeza battles for the ball with Ajax Cape Town's Eyong Enoh in their Premier Soccer League match at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday night. Pic. Sydney Mahlangu. 22/09/07. © Backpagepix.
TERRIERS: Kaizer Chief's Mabhuti Khenyeza battles for the ball with Ajax Cape Town's Eyong Enoh in their Premier Soccer League match at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday night. Pic. Sydney Mahlangu. 22/09/07. © Backpagepix.

Ajax Cape Town coach Craig Rosslee was hastily sent off for remonstrating with the fourth official in his team's 1-0 victory over Kaizer Chiefs in a Castle Premiership game at Loftus on Saturday night.

Ajax Cape Town coach Craig Rosslee was hastily sent off for remonstrating with the fourth official in his team's 1-0 victory over Kaizer Chiefs in a Castle Premiership game at Loftus on Saturday night.

Last month, Roger De Sa was sent off when his team, Bidvest Wits, also beat the Soweto giants 1-0. De Sa was fined R50 000 by the Premier Soccer League for his alleged verbal abuse of the fourth official.

Rosslee says he does not know what the charges will be and that he will not plead guilty as he believes Robert Sithole was incompetent.

"I gave him the instruction detailing our change and, at the same time, Chiefs were also going to make a change," the rookie coach said. "The Chiefs player went on but our player was ignored and he did not signal to the ref to make a change for our player too."

David Obua replaced Chiefs' ineffective striker Shaun Bartlett just on the hour mark while Ajax player Granwald Scott looked on. Rosslee admitted that this infuriated him.

"I said to him put our player on, but he just ignored me," Rosslee recalled. "I said to him 'what is your problem, we asked for a change'. When Chiefs got a corner he decided to make the change.

"I said don't make the change now while Chiefs have a corner but he ignored me again."

The next thing Rosslee saw referee Jonas Nhlapo speaking to Sithole and then asking the Ajax coach to leave the teams' technical area.

"Making a substitution at that time could have cost us the game as Chiefs were in the process of taking the corner. He (fourth official) was incompetent and did not seem to realise his error and his attitude was unacceptable."

Russel Mwafulirwa scored in the seventh minute to seal a famous victory for the Ajax youngsters who, just last season, flourished under the tutelage of Chiefs coach Muhsin Ertugral.

Ajax have 12 points from five games while Chiefs have five from the same number of games. - Sapa

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