Tshegofatso Nama of Magesi FC challenged by Kobamelo Setlhodi of Orbit College during the Betway Premiership match that saw College with 2-1 at Seshego Stadium on Tuesday night.
Image: BackpagePix
SURVIVAL. The only word that matters to the teams fighting for their Betway Premiership statuses, just like it became the order of the post match interviews for Magesi FC’s Allan Freeze and Pogiso Makhanya of Orbit College.
Orbit won 2-1 in Seshego Stadium, with goals by Lucky Malatsi and Gomolemo Khoto descending a dark cloud over the home side’s survival hopes.
Motsie Matima pulled one back for Magesi but it was not enough to assist Freeze’s survival ambitions.
“Survival now is not in our hands. It is not in my hands, it is not in the players’ hands. We’ve got to fight now,” cried Freeze in his post match interview.
“We had an advantage, we were playing at home. We depended on this home game to put us somewhere. We let ourselves down at home. Now it’s an uphill battle.”
For Makhanya, the script was different with the three points elevating them to 14th place on the standings with 23 points, Magesi and Marumo Gallants who are both on 21 points on 15th and 16th places respectively.
Gallants, though, play TX Galaxy on Wednesday night.
“We knew coming into this game that it was going to be a six-pointer against Magesi. We knew (if we lost this one) it was going to be difficult to survive. It's a relief but we still need to fight for the next three games,” beamed Makhanya.
“Survival, it's in our hands again but we have to fight for every point we play for.”
Things are not at all looking rosy for Magesi who play title-chasing Orlando Pirates in the next league outing at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday.
But fight, they will.
“We’re gonna go out there and play, it's a fixture and we have to show up for it, we must go play the game. We’ve got to prepare with whatever players we have,” said Freeze.
“Now it's do or die. It also comes down to the players sometimes. They have to also fight, I can’t fight alone. There are three games left, we can't take chances with these games. In every game we must go and fight now.”
Orbit are also approaching their next matches with an equally measured vigilance.
“Magesi will be playing Orlando Pirates and we have AmaZulu at home. We have to give our best at AmaZulu but it is going to be easy, they have nothing to lose since they are (already) in the Top8. (They) have proven to be very dangerous AmaZulu, they recently scored five (goals) against Chippa.”
After Pirates, Magesi have Siwelele and Richards on the final day, while Orbit seem to have a tougher finish of the season with Stellenbosch coming before Pirates on the last day.